Evolution of automatic cross-belt sampling systems and their application to sampling lignite

Revolutionary changes in the state-of-the-art for sampling system design have taken place over the course of the past twenty-five years. This paper briefly traces the history of these changes from the cross-stream sampler designs of the 1970s through the initial development of cross-belt samplers and on to today's application of cross-belt sampling systems to high capacity conveyor belts for lignite. The paper highlights the current installation of a cross-belt sampling system on twin 1800 mm conveyors feeding lignite to the Kardia Power Station of PPC as an example of successful application of this technology to lignite sampling. The paper concludes with several projections for the continued evolution of automatic sampling and a newly emerging integrated sampling and on-line analysis technology.