Conveyor belts are critical components in industrial processes and can be surprisingly complex. Their reliability and efficiency can literally make or break an operation so it’s important to get the right strategy in place and know the alternatives
IT COULD BE ARGUED THAT THE THREE RS DRIVING THE CONVEYOR BELT MARKET ARE: ROBUSTNESS, RELIABILITY and a reasonable price. But whatever the challenges manufacturers face in producing them, there’s no sign of any lack of movement in the market. There’s been a lot of controversy over low-grade imports, particularly from South East Asia, unable to cope with the demands of high-volume throughput or the accidents that can test the strength of even the most resilient product. Any belt, however strong, however heavy, can be comprised by sharp falling materials or objects becoming lodged and causing tears, particularly in environments where materials such as aggregates are being moved. With that in mind, R&D teams have been intent on developing new ideas around resilience. Those at Dunlop Conveyor Belting in the Netherlands, for example, came up with a unique design known as Ultra X, an exceptionally tough quarrying belt that can also compete at the economy
BRIEF | THE STRENGTH IS IN THE WEAVE
Dunlop’s Ultra X gets its strength from what the company calls its home-grown “breaker weft construction”, They say this not only gives it impact resistance, but up to three times the rip resistance and five times the tear-resistance of conventional multi-ply belting of equivalent tensile strength, making it ideal for heavy-duty use with the likes of steel, cement and quarrying.
BRACED FOR BELTS
end of the market. But there is a lot more than just a cost debate making ground these days. There is the one that concerns the belt as an alternative to trucks. Road routes are often used to shift raw materials such as limestone and coal from factories to ports, not something that is seen as particularly sustainable these days. Belt advocates argue that distances involved can sometimes amount to several kilometres, the roads can be uneven, may cross rivers, involve bridges and hills as well as unpopular routes – or, even worse, involve various detours - through populated areas with the obvious safety implications, not to mention the reputational ones that can affect public confidence in a project. But the most significant point is that higher production inevitably means more trips. That’s one of the factors behind a search for more consistent alternatives and one of the reasons the likes of BEUMER Group began offering open-troughed belt conveyors and closed Pipe Conveyors.
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