Conveyor Belt Materials They must be durable, long lasting and resistant to a wide range of temperatures, moisture and chemicals.There are five main materials that conveyor belts are made out of: thermoplastics, metal, rubber, fabric and leather. Plastics include polyester, polyvinyl chloride, silicone and polyethylene. The metals are stainless and carbon steel, and the fabric materials are canvas or cotton. The most popular material is a rubber composite because it is flexible, resistant, smooth and seamless. It also doesn’t have any holes or openings. To increase strength, many belt materials contain additives, including fabric, steel, polyester or fiberglass. Many flat belts are actually composed of a core material and a covering. These belts are parts of many different types of conveyors, including troughed, inclined, horizontal, food grade and overhead conveyors, but they are not used in chain, pneumatic or screw conveyors. Choosing the right belting material is the most important specification involved with conveyor systems because the wrong material could compromise productivity or worker safety. Conveyor systems, especially those in manufacturing facilities, travel through many different environments. For example, assembly line conveyors may travel through an oven, underwater parts washer or some sort of secondary operation like painting. Therefore, they must be resistant, durable and able to handle these harsh conditions on a continuous and regular basis. Belts that carry ingredients, raw materials and finished, unpackaged goods in food or beverage processing plants are made of either stainless steel or a heat resistant, non contaminating plastic resin. They must be FDA or USDA approved and easy to clean and sanitize. Materials like some hard plastics or metal lack the flexibility needed to convey, which requires the belt to bend, as they are on a continuous loop around two sets of rollers. In these situations, small parts are interlocked together or woven in order to bend and twist. However, these tend to have holes or cracks and are not smooth or water tight. They are not made for carrying small or irregularly shaped objects as well as products in bags, which could sag or fall through the cracks. Cleated Belt Conveyor Installation If your business regularly moves bulk, lose products and has limited space, you might want to consider adding cleated belt conveyors. These conveyors allow you to keep your product separated as it is conveyed up and down inclines and declines. At Allstate Conveyor, we have the experts that you need to design and build the perfect cleated belt conveyor system for your company. A cleated belt conveyor is a conveyor that has a belt that contains carriers or cleats on its surface. The cleats allow products to be separated as they move up inclines and down declines. There are many different cleat designs that are available, including food-grade cleats for the separation of food products during transportation. Adding cleated belt conveyors to your product line can help to improve efficiency. They also allow for faster conveying and can be helpful if you have limited space. Cleated belt conveyors can easily handle inclines and declines while keeping your products separated. durability over other belt materials load capacity resistance to wear resilience in harsh environments affordable alternative to stainless steel or fiberglass Cleated belt conveyors are used in industries that transport loose bulk products. They are helpful in keeping the products separated as they are conveyed. They are commonly used in the food industry. They are also used to convey products in recycling plants, for solid waste removal, and others. Industries that commonly use Cleated belt driven conveyors: Warehousing & Distribution Manufacturing Order Fulfillment Aerospace Government Military & Agency Automotive Parcel Handling Allstate Conveyor is made up of professionals who are experts in conveyor systems. We serve a broad range of industries and are familiar with the different needs that each has. When you choose us, we will work closely with you to help you to accomplish your goals. We can design your cleated belt conveyor systems and other conveyors that you need. We can then build them to your specifications and install them for you. We also offer ongoing maintenance plans and are able to assist you with repairing your existing conveyors. To obtain your free quote or to learn more about the solutions that we can provide to you, contact us by filling out our online contact form. You can also call us to get answers to your questions. What are the Different Types of Conveyor Belts? There are many types of conveyor belts out there, but what are they? According to Carol Francois with WiseGeek: “There are three different types of conveyor belts: the basic belt, snake sandwich belt and long belt. A basic belt conveyor consists of two or more pulleys that hold one continuous length of material. These types of belts can be motorized or require manual effort. As the belt moves forward, all the items on the belt are carried forward. “A common installation sites for conveyor belts include packaging or parcel delivery services. This industry often requires a method of relocating materials from one place to another, quickly and with minimal human intervention. The belt is typically installed at waist height to improve the ergonomics for the staff that are interacting with the materials. “The conveyor structure consists of a metal frame with rollers installed at various intervals along the length of the conveyor belt. The belt is typically a smooth, rubberized material that covers the rollers. As the belt moves over the rollers, the items placed on the belt are transferred with a reduced amount of friction, due to the use of multiple rollers. Basic belt conveyors also have curved sections to allow the belt to move product around corners. “The snake sandwich conveyor consists of two separate conveyor belts that are set up parallel to each other and hold the product in place while moving along the belt. This type of belt is used to move items up steep inclines, up to 90 degrees. Created in 1979, the snake sandwich conveyor was designed as a simple, efficient method of moving rocks and other material out of a mine. “The system was designed to make use of widely available hardware and used simple principles to ensure that it was easy to repair. Any type of mechanical system intended for deployment to mining operations must recognize the limited access to parts in remote areas. This system offers the ability to move a high volume of material at a consistent rate. Smooth surfaced belts allow the conveyor belts to be cleaned automatically with the use of belt scrapers and plows. The design is flexible enough to allow the materials redirected off the conveyor belt at any point through simple redirection. “The long belt conveyor is a system of three drive units used to move materials over a long distance. The most important feature of this system is the ability of the rollers to handle both horizontal and vertical curves. The long belt conveyor system can reach up to 13.8 km (8.57 miles) in length. This type of conveyor belt is often used in mining operations to transport materials to remote construction or building site locations, such as the bottom of a mining pit.” What Is a Pulley Roller? A pulley roller is a round or cylindrically shaped roller used as the axle of a pulley system. Most often, these types of pulleys are seen on devices such as conveyor belts, treadmill machines, and many other machines in the manufacturing and industrial fields. When used in a machine, this component must be strong, have high wear resistance, and have low friction coefficients. Pulley rollers are built to withstand extreme temperatures and provide a reduction in noise levels, which is a benefit in industrial fields where workers’ hearing must be protected. Rollers are used in household appliances as well. One type of machine that uses the pulley roller mechanism is the exercise machine known as a treadmill. This exercise machine is used for walking, jogging, or running in place. Treadmills can be plugged into an electrical outlet and use an electrical motor to operate. This motor has a pulley system that connects to a particular fan belt, which in turn connects to a second pulley and concentrically mounts to the pulley roller component. A second pulley roller mounts at the treadmill’s foot end and allows the belt to rotate freely, creating a continuous loop that is powered by the programmable electrical motor. An industrial use for the pulley roller is also seen in a device called a cutting assembly. This machine uses a blade to cut through thin materials like paper and is mounted on the device, which is connected to a pulley system that uses tension and pulley rollers. Through a series of gears, the device is pulled along a track, with its pulley wheels mounted to the track. The device mounts to the track with a belt and the belt is held together by a series of pulley rollers. As the entire assembly operates, paper is cut by the device’s blade in a continuous, looping fashion. In household appliances, it is often necessary to have to replace a belt or to refasten a replacement pulley roller. This can potentially happen in treadmills as well. To replace the pulley roller, the power to the treadmill must be turned off and the machine unplugged from the electrical outlet. Once this is completed, the roller that is damaged must be removed from the machine. The replacement pulley roller, which should have the same dimensions as the previous roller, should have the belt wrapped around it and placed back on to the machine. Belt Drives Belt Drives are a type of frictional drives used for transmitting powers from one shaft to another by means of pulleys which rotate at the same speed or at the different speed. A belt drive is shown in the figure. It consists of two pulleys over which an endless belt it passed over them. The mechanical power or rotary motion is transmitted from the driving pulley to the driven pulley because of the frictional grip that exists between the belt and the pulley surface. The portion of the belt which is having less tension is called slack side and the one which has higher tension is called tight side. The effective pulling power of the belt that causes the rotation of the driven pulley is the difference in tension on the slack and tight side. The tensions in the tight and slack sides of the belt depend on the angle of contact, the belt drives have to be arranged such that the slack side comes above and the tight side comes below the pulleys. This arrangement increases the angled contact of the belt on the driven side. Sometimes in a belt-drive, there is always a possibility of some slipping taking place between the belt and the pulleys which cause the driven pulley to rotate at a lesser speed, consequently reduces the power transmission. Hence belt drives are said to be not a Positive type of power transmission system