Conveyors in Industry
- Building site and rubble/aggregates
- Warehouse and logistics
- Waste Recycling
- Food Industry
- Industry, Manufacturing and processing
About conveyors
- Types of Conveyors
- Belts and belting
- Control Panels and PLC's
- Recent Examples
- Jaguar Bumber conveyor
- Overhead laundry sorter
- Sand and aggregates
- Waste and recycling
- Curves and bends
- Drag Conveyors
- Money Conveyor
- Hairpin bend
Other Information
Conveyor(s) of the Month
May 2008
Simple gravity roller bend.
Band-driven power roller
Tapered rollers keep the products 'on track'
Curved belt conveyors.
slat conveyor
Round the Bend !
The classic image of a conveyor belt is a long, straight machine. If only life where that simple ! In the real world people require conveyor systems to go round bends, up and down hill, and even in spirals.
Central Conveyors is able to offer a wide range of options for going off the "straight and narrow"
Rollers are usually the simplest way of producing curved conveyors. To the left is a picture of a basic unpowered gravity unit utilising plastic close-packed rollers. (click to enlarge)
More commonly it is required for the bend to be 'powered'. The most common options for this are driven rollers, belts, and slat/plate conveyors.
The units featured on the left is an example of a band-driven roller unit. These can also function as "accumulation" conveyors, in that the rollers will 'slip the clutch' if the item they are carrying is itself immobilised (e.g. if it hits an 'end stop'). This is a useful feature, as otherwise a congested conveyor could 'back up', and ultimately cause items to be pushed off the curved section onto the floor.
Notice how the rollers in the ‘bend’ section are tapered. This has a dual purpose. It ensures that products cannot possibly ‘fall off’ the bend section. It also ensures that the products maintain their orientation as they move around the bend, and leave the bend facing the same way as they entered.
Belt Bend Units
It seems impossible, but you can bend a flat belt into a curve ! The units shown opposite are 90-degree bends, though almost any degree of bend is possible.Slat conveyors and some types of plate-link conveyors can also be formed into bends and loops.