In bulk material handling applications, a conveyor is typically a massive, complex and extremely powerful system. It is usually constructed of rubber belting, set on rolling idlers, wrapped around large steel drums at each end and driven by a high-torque motor. As such, a conveyor presents enough danger zones that the entire system should be considered a hazard. In most applications, a conveyor belt moves at a relatively constant speed, commonly running somewhere between 0.5 and 10m/s. An Olympic sprinter has a reaction time of about 0.18s (roughly one-fifth of a second) when poised at the starting line and totally focused on the race. If this athlete became tangled in a conveyor belt travelling at 1.5m/s, they would be carried 0.27m before even realizing what had happened.
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