The Conveyor Equipment Manufacturers Association’s (CEMA) reports that through the second quarter, booked and billed sales remained down for the conveyor industry as they were for most other industries in 2002. Booked sales are estimated at $2.2 billion, and shipments are estimated at $2.6 billion through the second quarter. Shipments outpaced booked orders by 14 percent, which is less than the 20 percent for the previous year, according to Lee Schomberg, CEMA president.

Although participants at the CEMA spring and fall meetings

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are member companies, the association’s committees are dedicated to helping end users better match equipment to their applications, improve safety and enhance return on investment.

Consensus on 57 new or modified terms and definitions are now available for everyone’s review and comment at the CEMA Web site, cemanet.org. Updates from the Conveyor Safety Committee on conveyor cross-over guidelines, standardized safety posters, new safety labels, best practices in the areas of equipment guarding and emergency stops are also available.

The association’s Bulk Handling Conveyor section’s seventh edition of Belt Conveyors for Bulk Materials includes new sections on accessories, deck trusses and a new engineering treatment of long overland conveyors. The idler committee is developing a standard for a new CEMA “F” class idler, 4 and 5 roll idlers, and garland idlers. The pulley committee is developing ceramic lagging coefficient of friction factors, acceleration and deceleration inputs, and better definitions of high modulus belts, motorized pulleys, bushing systems, and overhung loads. The screw conveyor committee is updating the horsepower calculations and developing an alternate method of computing horsepower requirements for their systems.

The Unit Handling Conveyor section completed a final draft of CEMA Technical Report – Noise Considerations for Conveyor System Design and Application. When approved by CEMA, it will be available for free download on the CEMA Web site.

For more information on CEMA and to find out how you can participate in updating and developing conveyor standards, visit cemanet.org