There are many types of Conveyor belt. It depends on the category & quality of material, style and construction or manufacturing of conveyor belts. These are used in the industrial world from small scale industries to big giants of market.  The purpose of using a conveyor belt is to transport materials and goods. Some conveyor belts are too gentle as they are used for transporting diamonds. Some are so hard to transport stones and burning coal. Some are used in transportation of processing of food items including chewing gum, chocolate.

The conveyor belts help in automatic processing, assembling, shipping, packing and related works

The Conveyor machine is being using worldwide in big factories because it provides ease to the manufacturer and due to the versatility; it fulfills the manufacturer needs.  Different specifications, configurations, and multiple belting options help in manufacturing customized products.

In this article, you will get to know that what different types of conveyor belts are? What are their specifications, configurations, and uses?

What are Conveyor belts?

Conveyor belts are long continuously moving metal or rubber strips and they are Polyvinyl chloride or Polyurethane Belts. These are used in many manufacturing concerns for transporting items so that their processing, assembling, packaging, and shipping occur easily and in a small time compared to man power.

These belts are made in endless form by jointing both belt ends with different methods. Conveyor or Transporting belt is a medium by which you can carry objects and it is a medium of a belt conveyor system. Among many conveyor systems, conveyor belt system is one of them and commonly used around the world.  It consists of two or more than two pulleys with endless loop or strip of carrying medium called as a conveying belt.

This Conveyor Belt continuously rotates with the help of pulleys which are powered and help in moving the material or object forward. A powered pulley is known as drive pulley whereas unpowered pulley is known as an idler pulley. Conveyor belt has classes, one class in which general material is handled for example boxes are moving inside the factory while in other class bulk material is handled for example bulk material which is in huge volume like coal, sand, grain, salt etc is transported. The most complex class is Processing conveyor belts that are used in processing of finished products. These products includes your printed cloth on Textile Printing Blanket, your wooden chip board, your confectionery & baking products and few more.

Top 9 Uses of Conveyor belts

There are many uses of conveyor belt & some are as follow

  1. With the help of a conveyor belt, it becomes very easy to carry and transport heavy material within no time.
  2. The conveyor belt is used in many transporting industries, at airports, in food processing factories.
  3. It gives a relief to the labors and very cost efficient.
  4. With the help of a conveyor belt, the productivity increases rapidly
  5. It has a quality that it can transport material horizontally as well as vertically.
  6. Conveyor belt helps to load the objects and it prevents the objects from damaging.
  7. The involvement of labor is small during the whole process and due to which injury cases are very minute.
  8. It is a very creative way of increasing production efficiency.
  9. Less power is consumed and it is very durable.

List of few Industries Directly / Indirectly Using Conveyor Belts

Agriculture Fruit & Vegetable Snacks Pharmaceuticals Peat Processing Dairies
Automotive Furniture Soap Poultry Packing Confectionery
Automated Glass Sugar Processing Printing Packaging Clothing
Hospitals Baking Textile Chemicals Book Binding Fitness
Food Beverages Frozen Foods Fish Processing Bricks & Tiles Parcels
Laundiries Biscuit Baking Tobacco Electronics Canning Lumber

Applications of Conveyor belts

Conveyor belts have countless applications and uses due to which this machine is considered as most reliable and useful device for carrying major operations of a factory.  It is used in approximately all countries for meeting the customer’s demand. With the help of conveyor belts the bulk of products are produced efficiently.  Like other countries, Pakistan is also using it in its factories and ensuring the delivery of products to the customers efficiently.

Manufacturers always try the latest technologies and implement in its industries due to which their businesses are flourishing day by day. They are providing benefits to its production factories. They are making international standard products and giving the best services to the customers. Recently, few international brands like forbo introduced Green Belts i.e., manufactured under environment friendly processes and using least earth resources. The remarkable thing is recycling and reusing consumed belts.

Due to the emergence of Latest technologies, many changes occur in the industrial world. Manufacturers are using convenient mode of manufacturing products. In the present time, the use of conveyor belts at a production unit is very popular. These are used for carrying materials made of Rubber, PVC, PU, Cotton and Teflon thread & nylon plastic layers sheets.

Elevator belts have regularly spaced partitions and these are used for transferring loose materials upward, also called vertical and inclined belt, customized with buckets, boxes to shift products from lower pace to upper. Conveyor belts have a quality that these are helpful in self-unloading the bulk material. It is used in the assembly line as well as escalators.

At different shopping stores or malls, you can see Conveyor belts which are used for checking and moving the shopping items. Similarly, you can see belts using in airport while scanning your luggage.

At ski areas, these belts are used for transporting skiers up to the hill.

Types of Conveyor belts

Conveyor have advanced technology. Manufacturers are investing money on modern conveyor belts which make their work easier. There are some different types of conveyor belts which have different uses and different applications.

Filter belts or PVC Belts

Filter belts are commonly used for draining excess liquid from different parts or filtering toxins. Those companies which need to do water treatment they use such belts.  In the manufacturing of filter belts synthetic fiber or metal is used. At some places, like in laundries; there are holes in belts to drain water.

PVC belts are used at grocery stores, at airports, polyester or neoprene belts are handling luggage for shorter and longer delivery. PVC Belts are widely used in industrial applications.

Hinged Belts or Rubber Conveyor Belts

These belts are made from a metal having solid flat surface. It rotates with the help of a pulley system which has interlocking hinges. These belts are used for carrying or transporting scrap, small & large heavy weighted products. It is also used for recycling applications. Rubber Conveyor belts are harder. Crushed glass, billed stones, sugarcane, metal products. Hinged belts made of metal last longer.

Solid, general-use belts

These are common belts made up nylon, nitrile, rubber, and polyester etc.  The quality of belt shows that for which purpose it is used. In the milling or mining industry conveyor belt of rubber is used for carrying raw ore.

Woven metal belts or Steel Chain Conveyor

Woven belts are widely used at Glass, Paper, Cement, Marble, Wood industries and electronics industries. These have metal chains which are interlinked or have wiring which is designed in such a way that allows airflow when an object moves on the belt.

On customer demand, customized or pre-fabricated woven belts are also manufactured.

Plastic interlocking belts or Plastic Chain Belt

It is the best alternative to fabric or metal belts. These are mostly used in the automotive industry and food handling and its packaging. These belts jointed by interlocking each part with another. At some places Plastic Chain Belts are designed for modular conveying.

Food Conveyor Belts

With the application of food conveyor belts, food industry has been revolutionized. Using the right material for these belts, the food processing (like freezing, cooking) can be done easily without any manual work.

For example, the baked food, can be cooked from raw products easily when put on the conveyor belts of production lines. Some companies in under developed countries risk human health by using non food belts.

Comparison Between Food & Non-Food Conveyor Belt

Non-Food Conveyor
Food Conveyor
Sticky Non-Sticky
Average Price High price
Oil Absorb Oil Proof
Non Food Use Food Usages
Non FDA FDA license required
Non International standards International Standards
Various Jointing Possibilities Few Jointing Possibilities
Big list of manufacturers Small List of manufacturers
Limited Applications Unlimited Application
Can not be used on PU Application Can be use on PVC Applications

Selecting the right kind of belt material is the main thing here. Following are few kinds of belts and their application

  1. Spiral wire: this material consists of wide variety of metal wires used for making belts, and has many applications in food industry.
  2. Plastic hybrid: it is the mixture of plastic with high class stainless steel, which is used in cooler stations like moving frozen food.
  3. Rolmat: airflow is necessary for moving food. Rolmat belts make the open area to create required air flow.
  4. Uniflex: this is very flexible belt used for washing, drying, cooking, coating and so on. it is made of highly tensile material, widely used in snack food products.

Carrier Conveyor Belt

Carrier conveyor belts are the belts used in the medium/light duty vibrating conveyor systems. These belts are used for handling the fragile products.  They are used for high temperature applications up to 2000 degrees Fahrenheit. There is continuous steel structure built throughout length of belt. Low maintenance requires with easy to clean features. For sticky products, polished surfaces and special coatings are used. Liners are easily replaceable with wear surfaces.

Bucket Conveyor Belt

The bucket conveyor belts are connected with buckets at both ends in horizontal, vertical and inclined direction. The buckets remain in carrying position unless they discharge the products at the required stations. High duty belts are used in flour industry and for bulk of small sizes like cement, grits, ores, sand, and so on. belts reach up to height of 175 meters in vertical conveyors.

Modular Conveyor Belt

The modular conveyor belts or link conveyor belts consist of the flexible plastic belts. They are very expensive and have following benefits:

  • It is possible to transport small size objects
  • Belt can be bent where required
  • Grip belts can also be used.
  • Belts can travel both up and down
  • These belts can resist both very low and very high temperatures
  • The modular belts can be used for continuous transitions and thus they have smaller diameters.

Processing Conveyor Belts

These conveyor belts used for the food processing are the processing conveyor belts and are made for transporting & processing products. These belts can travel in vertical, horizontal, neck shape, inclined shape and in many other patterns. These are mostly Polyurethane Conveyor Belts to ensure accuracy and longer life.

The dimensions (length, width, and inclination) of belt are decided according to the requirement. Belts are provided with fillets and containment edges for centering. They serve in various industries including following:

  • Food
  • Ceramics
  • Pharmaceutical
  • Mineral mining
  • Chemical
  • Dairy-cheese
  • Farming-livestock

Treadmills Belts

The Treadmill is the machine used for exercising (climbing and running) while being stationary. Running on road, Jogging in parks are replaced with treadmill machines. These machines offer the moving platform made of Treadmill belts powered by motors. In this way, you can say that treadmills are machines using conveyor belts. These belts continue to move in rear direction and making user to run forward. You can have simpler, light and less costly treadmills or there are heavy duty and expensive treadmills also available in the market.

The Final Words

In general, it is really hard to mention all types. Rubber Conveyor Belts are generally discussed but in deeper view these are further categorized into Chevron, Steel wired, Fire proof and more belt types. Their uses are also universal at every industrial level. They eased life but also effected use of man power.

Types of Conveyor Belts

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