Belt Conveyor Systems.

Typical Industries: Warehouse, "pick n' pack", assembly line, food preparation.

Description: The traditional belt system for general lightweight carrying duties.

Used for: General movement of lightweight material, including food, packages, aggregates, powders etc. Excels with smaller items, or items requiring very smooth and jolt-free movement.
Not suitable for: Very heavy items, or anything sharp and/or abrasive.

The traditional industrial workhorse, the belt conveyor is the complement of the powered roller conveyor.

Traditional flat belt conveyor with PVC belt

Flat conveyor feeding into inclined conveyor, featuring a PVC 'griptop' belt. The inclined conveyor feeds onto an overhead conveyor.

Two belt conveyors for moving sand. Note the 'ridges' on the PVC belt; known as 'flights', these help to carry loose material such as aggregates up an incline.

Whereas a roller conveyor can only handle larger items with a flat lower surface and a low centre of gravity, the belt conveyor can accommodate almost anything; from discrete packages, to small components, to aggregates and powders. Items that might be prone to toppling are less likely to do so on a belt conveyor than they are on a powered roller conveyor. They can also handle semi-solid or sticky items such as clay or bread dough etc.

The belt conveyor is very flexible, able to form bends, as well as gradients. It also permits a very wide range of belt material and geometry, including such things as antibacterial belts for the food industry, contoured and/or flighted belts for aggregate handling, wire mesh belts (to allow air or liquid to circulate around a product), and a wealth of other applications.

The limitation of a conventional belt conveyor is – ultimately – the carrying weight. Beyond a certain weight threshold, the belt will begin to slip. At this point you might need to consider a chain-driven belt conveyor, or possibly a platelink conveyor. The latter is also the conveyor of choice for sharp or abrasive products that might puncture or tear a conventional conveyor belt.

Notes: Build and Construction

We offer two types of belt conveyor systems, Roller bed section and Skid bed section: both manufactured from folded steel side sections and fitted with cross bracings spaced at intervals dependant of handing weight.

Roller bed section is fitted with precision bearings housed with in a 3mm thick tube with a 11mm hex spindle. Skid bed section has a sheet metal top base to allow the belt to skid along the surface.

We use various ways to drive our belt conveyors dependant on the system size, for small applications we would use a powered drum to power the system and a tensioning device fitted one end.

For larger systems we would use a under slung combined drive and tension unit powered by a geared motor unit connected to the drive drum by a 2:1 chain drive.

All systems come complete with adjustable support legs and fitted in most cases with 2 ply rubber grip face belting. The controls as standard on small applications will be stop/start contactor control, but on larger projects there would be a control panel fitted.