Wikipedia about belt conveyors

Thanking Wikipedia for it post on belt conveyors.

A conveyor belt (or belt conveyor) consists of two or more pulleys, with a continuous loop of material – the conveyor belt – that rotates about them. One or both of the pulleys are powered, moving the belt and the material on the belt forward. The powered pulley is called the drive pulley while the unpowered pulley is called the idler. There are two main industrial classes of belt conveyors; Those in general material handling such as those moving boxes along inside a factory and bulk material handling such as those used to transport industrial and agricultural materials, such as grain, coal, ores, etc. generally in outdoor locations. Generally companies providing general material handling type belt conveyors do not provide the conveyors for bulk material handling. In addition there are a number of commercial applications of belt conveyors such as those in grocery stores.

The belt consists of one or more layers of material they can be made out of rubber. Many belts in general material handling have two layers. An under layer of material to provide linear strength and shape called a carcass and an over layer called the cover. The carcass is often a cotton or plastic web or mesh. The cover is often various rubber or plastic compounds specified by use of the belt. Covers can be made from more exotic materials for unusual applications such as silicone for heat or gum rubber when traction is essential.

Spiral Upwards with C-Trak Conveyors

New Spiral Conveyor Technology

We are looking at conveyor belting for spiral conveyors in today’s blog.  Building Conveyors around your needs one of the new belts on the market the compact spiral conveyor for the food and processing market.

Spiral Conveyor Belting has the following benefits.

  •  Uses a small footprint so you do not waste factory floor space only using a 1.5 turn ratio.
  • The quality of the conveyors only using the best components ensuring it will last and have little maintenance.
  • Easy access for total wash down and maintenance reducing costs and providing better sanitation.
  • All plastic contact surface making it a great alternative for unpacked raw food products like meat, fish and poultry.
  • Exceptional cleaning belt design has double slot belts thus stooping food from getting trapped in hinged areas.
  • Stainless steel bearings so no lubricant is needed making it ideal for the food industry.
  • Low friction due to use of bearings the spiral are driven by one motor only for up to 50M of belt. Meaning less transfer making it very economical

Spiral Conveyors provide a solution which has the advantage of saving  space compared to a straight forward incline conveyor achieving continuous  vertical transfer  from low to high levels. Check out more information here

Over the last decade spiral conveyors have been replacing incline conveyors and we are sure it will continue to do so as the cost of factory floor space is rising. It would seem to be a natural step forward in the market today. Almost any type of product can be moved by a spiral conveyor including pre packed trays, cans, bottles and even loose products.

So to summarise the quality of these belts only one drive is needed, no lubrication, hygienic design and full width rod ensures a flat belt surface.

spiral conveyor

spiral conveyor

Plastic Conveyor Belting

Today I would like to post a little more about plastic modular belts.

There are many conveyor belting companies that provide this type of belting but I am sure you have all heard of Intralox  a manufacture of various plastic belts with a good reputation and high profile in the belting market. Providing quality and reliability. Below is just a sample of some of their belts for more information please contact direct. We have used them for some previous conveyor applications and indeed on a ongoing project at present.

These are Intralox standard belts

  • PA ~ Acetal thermoplastics which are considerably stronger than PP and PE. Acetal has a balance of thermal, mechanical, & chemical properties and a low coefficient of friction. 
  • PE ~ Polyethylene is another lightweight thermoplastic which has a high impact strength, superior fatigue resistance with flexibility. It has a chemical resistant to many acids, bases, and hydrocarbons and can be used at lower temperatures than polypropylene.  
  • PP ~ Polypropylene is a standard material suitable for use in many general applications where chemical resistance to acids, bases, salts, and alcohols may be required. A relatively strong material in normal use, polypropylene exhibits a somewhat brittle quality at low temperatures.

Most of the time the standard belt materials will be suitable for your general use if not one of the following special belts can be supplied.

  • Flame Retardant Thermoplastic Polyester (FR-TPES)
  • Abrasion Resistant (AR) Nylon
  • Detectable Polypropylene
  • High Speed Intralon™
  • Electrically Conductive (EC) Acetal
  • Heat Resistant (HR) Nylon 
  • High Strength Electrically Conductive (HSEC) Acetal
  • Impact Resistant (IR) Nylon
  • Polypropylene Composite (PPC)
  • X-ray Detectable Acetal
  • Enduralox™ Polypropylene

 

Colours that can be supplied.

Intralox offers a choice of ten different product colours to meet your applications requirements, such as visibility for inspection, low glare, etc. Available colours:

  • White
  • Gray
  • Black
  • Blue
  • Red
  • Green
  • Tan
  • Yellow
  • Brown
  • Natural

Positive Drive at C-Trak

Is this the Next Step in Belting read on….

We are dealing with more and more demands in the work place and hygine levels are one of the many factors pushing to increase quality of conveyor belting.

Todays blog post is about Volta Conveyor Belting.

Volta are one of many conveyor belting companies with new products being released regularly. Lets take for example the new positive drive flat homogenous belts. This is all new technology and one of the newest generations of conveyor belts. This type of belting can typically be used in the food industry.

Many conveyor manufacturing companies are now looking at using this type of belting.

All of the belts are usda, fda and usda dairy approved.

Positive Drive

 Integral teeth guides the belt so their is no off-tracking, tensioning and belt slippage Smooth Homogenous Surfaces

  • Higher product value
  • low bacteria counts
  • improved shelf life
  • No fibers or plastic pieces that can potentially find their way into your food products.

Effective Sanitation:

Easily and effectively cleaned which will reduce  downtime of your production to a minimum.

Increased Productivity Cleaning time is drastically reduced and converted to valuable production time Cost Savings Lowers costs in water and chemical consumption, maintenance and sanitation. Greatly reduces product waste and water treatment costs. Our Positive-Drive line now includes three positive-drive belt styles super drive, dual drive and dual drive sp.

Check out our website http://www.conveyor-manufacturers.co.uk/