A conveyor belt is the carrying medium of a belt conveyor system (often shortened to belt conveyor). A belt conveyor system is one of many types of conveyor systems. A belt conveyor system consists of two or more pulleys (sometimes referred to as drums), with a closed loop of carrying medium—the conveyor belt—that rotates about them. One or both of the pulleys are powered, moving the belt and the material on the belt forward. The powered pulley is called the drive pulley while the unpowered pulley is called the idler pulley. There are two main industrial classes of belt conveyors; Those in general

material handling Material handling involves short-distance movement within the confines of a building or between a building and a transportation vehicle. It uses a wide range of manual, semi-automated, and automated equipment and includes consideration of the pro ...

such as those moving boxes along inside a factory and bulk material handling such as those used to transport large volumes of resources and agricultural materials, such as

grain A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit ( caryopsis) – with or without an attached hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and legum ...

salt Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quant ...

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when ...

, ore,

sand Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural class ...

overburden In mining, overburden (also called waste or spoil) is the material that lies above an area that lends itself to economical exploitation, such as the rock, soil, and ecosystem that lies above a coal seam or ore body. Overburden is distinct from tai ...

and more.

Overview

Conveyors are durable and reliable components used in automated

distribution Distribution may refer to: Mathematics * Distribution (mathematics), generalized functions used to formulate solutions of partial differential equations *Probability distribution, the probability of a particular value or value range of a vari ...

and warehousing, as well as manufacturing and production facilities. In combination with computer-controlled pallet handling equipment this allows for more efficient

retail Retail is the sale of goods and Service (economics), services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturing, manufacturers, dire ...

wholesale Wholesaling or distributing is the sale of goods or merchandise to retailers; to industrial, commercial, institutional or other professional business users; or to other wholesalers (wholesale businesses) and related subordinated services. I ...

, and

manufacturing Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer to ...

. It is considered a labor-saving system that allows large volumes to move rapidly through a process, allowing companies to

ship A ship is a large watercraft that travels the world's oceans and other sufficiently deep waterways, carrying cargo or passengers, or in support of specialized missions, such as defense, research, and fishing. Ships are generally distinguished ...

or receive higher volumes with smaller storage space and with labor

expense An expense is an item requiring an outflow of money, or any form of fortune in general, to another person or group as payment for an item, service, or other category of costs. For a tenant, rent is an expense. For students or parents, tuition i ...

. Belt conveyors are the most commonly used powered conveyors because they are the most versatile and the least expensive. Products are conveyed directly on the belt so both regular and irregular shaped objects, large or small, light and heavy, can be transported successfully. Belt conveyors are also manufactured with curved sections that use tapered rollers and curved belting to convey products around a corner. These conveyor systems are commonly used in postal sorting offices and airport

baggage handling system A baggage handling system (BHS) is a type of conveyor system installed in airports that transports checked luggage from ticket counters to areas where the bags can be loaded onto airplanes. A BHS also transports checked baggage coming from airplan ...

s. Belt conveyors are generally fairly similar in construction consisting of a metal frame with rollers at either end of a flat metal bed. Rubber conveyor belts are commonly used to convey items with irregular bottom surfaces, small items that would fall in between rollers (e.g. a sushi conveyor bar), or bags of product that would sag between rollers. The belt is looped around each of the rollers and when one of the rollers is powered (by an

electrical motor An electric motor is an electrical machine that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy. Most electric motors operate through the interaction between the motor's magnetic field and electric current in a wire winding to generate force ...

) the belting slides across the solid metal frame bed, moving the product. In heavy use applications, the beds in which the belting is pulled over are replaced with rollers. The rollers allow weight to be conveyed as they reduce the amount of friction generated from the heavier loading on the belting. The exception to the standard belt conveyor construction is the Sandwich Belt conveyor. The Sandwich Belt conveyor uses two conveyor belts, instead of one. These two conventional conveyor belts are positioned face to face, to firmly contain the items being carried in a "sandwich-like" hold. Belt conveyors can be used to transport products in a straight line or through changes in elevation or direction. For conveying Bulk Materials like Grains, Ore, Coal, Sand etc., over gentle slopes or gentle curvatures, a troughed belt conveyor is used. The trough of the belt ensures that the flowable material is contained within the edges of the belt. The trough is achieved by keeping the idler rollers in an angle to the horizontal at the sides of the idler frame. A Pipe Conveyor is used for material travel paths that require sharper bends and inclines up to 35 degrees. A pipe conveyor features the edges of the belt being rolled together to form a circular section like a pipe. Like a Troughed Belt Conveyor, a Pipe Conveyor also uses idler rollers. However, in this case, the idler frame completely surrounds the conveyor belt helping it to retain the pipe section while pushing it forward. In the case of travel paths requiring high angles and snake-like curvatures, a Sandwich Belt is used. The sandwich belt design enables materials carried to travel along a path of high inclines up to 90-degree angles, enabling a vertical path as opposed to a horizontal one. This transport option is also powered by idlers. Other important components of the Belt Conveying System apart from the Pulleys and Idler rollers include the Drive Arrangement of reducer Gear Boxes, Drive motors, and associated couplings. Scrapers to clean the belt, Chutes for controlling the discharge direction, Skirts for containing the discharge on the receiving belt, Take Up assembly for "tensioning" the belt and Technological Structures like Stringer, Short Post, Drive Frames, Pulley Frames make up the balance items to complete the Belt Conveying system. In certain applications, Belt conveyors can also be used for static accumulation or cartons. File:Belt-conveyor-handling.jpg, Belt conveyor systems at a Packing Depot File:Belt-conveyor-handling2.jpg, Baggage Handling Belt Conveyor systems File:Heimat- und Braunkohlemuseum Steinberg am See - Förderbandgerüst BBI.jpg, Belt conveyor from an open-pit lignite mine in

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total l ...

History

Primitive conveyor belts have been in use since the 19th century. In 1892, Thomas Robins began a series of inventions which led to the development of a conveyor belt used for carrying coal, ores and other products. In 1901,

Sandvik Sandvik AB is a Swedish multinational engineering company specializing in metal cutting, digital and additive manufacturing, mining and construction, stainless and special steel alloys, and industrial heating. The company was founded in Swe ...

invented and started the production of

steel Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistan ...

conveyor belts. In 1905, Richard Sutcliffe invented the first conveyor belts for use in

coal mines Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron fro ...

which revolutionized the mining industry. In 1913,

Henry Ford Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American industrialist, business magnate, founder of the Ford Motor Company, and chief developer of the assembly line technique of mass production. By creating the first automobile that ...

introduced conveyor-belt assembly lines at

Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. The company sells automobi ...

's Highland Park, Michigan factory. In 1972, the French society REI created in New Caledonia the longest straight-belt conveyor in the world in that moment, at a length of . Hyacynthe Marcel Bocchetti was the concept designer.. The longest conveyor belt is that of the Bou Craa phosphate mine in Western Sahara (1973, 98 km in 11 sections). The longest single-span conveyor belt is at the Boddington bauxite mine in Western Australia (31 km). In 1957, the B. F. Goodrich Company patented a

Möbius strip In mathematics, a Möbius strip, Möbius band, or Möbius loop is a surface that can be formed by attaching the ends of a strip of paper together with a half-twist. As a mathematical object, it was discovered by Johann Benedict Listing and A ...

conveyor belt, that it went on to produce as the "Turnover Conveyor Belt System". Incorporating a half-twist, it had the advantage over conventional belts of a longer life because it could expose all of its surface area to wear and tear. Such Möbius strip belts are no longer manufactured because untwisted modern belts can be made more durable by constructing them from several layers of different materials. In 1970, Intralox, a Louisiana-based company, registered the first patent for all plastic, modular belting.

Structure

The

belt Belt may refer to: Apparel * Belt (clothing), a leather or fabric band worn around the waist * Championship belt, a type of trophy used primarily in combat sports * Colored belts, such as a black belt or red belt, worn by martial arts practiti ...

consists of one or more layers of material. It is common for belts to have three layers: a top cover, a carcass and a bottom cover. The purpose of the carcass is to provide linear strength and shape. The carcass is often a woven or metal fabric having a

warp Warp, warped or warping may refer to: Arts and entertainment Books and comics * WaRP Graphics, an alternative comics publisher * ''Warp'' (First Comics), comic book series published by First Comics based on the play ''Warp!'' * Warp (comics), a ...

weft Warp and weft are the two basic components used in weaving to turn thread or yarn into fabric. The lengthwise or longitudinal warp yarns are held stationary in tension on a frame or loom while the transverse weft (sometimes woof) is dra ...

. The warp refers to longitudinal cords whose characteristics of resistance and elasticity define the running properties of the belt. The weft represents the whole set of transversal cables allowing to the belt specific resistance against cuts, tears and impacts and at the same time high flexibility. The most common carcass materials are

polyester Polyester is a category of polymers that contain the ester functional group in every repeat unit of their main chain. As a specific material, it most commonly refers to a type called polyethylene terephthalate (PET). Polyesters include natura ...

nylon Nylon is a generic designation for a family of synthetic polymers composed of polyamides ( repeating units linked by amide links).The polyamides may be aliphatic or semi-aromatic. Nylon is a silk-like thermoplastic, generally made from pet ...

cotton Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor pe ...

and

aramid Aramid fibers, short for aromatic polyamide, are a class of heat-resistant and strong synthetic fibers. They are used in aerospace and military applications, for ballistic-rated body armor fabric and ballistic composites, in marine cordage, mar ...

(class of heat-resistant and strong synthetic fibers, with

Twaron Twaron (a brand name of Teijin Aramid) is a para-aramid. It is a heat-resistant and strong synthetic fibre developed in the early 1970s by the Dutch company Akzo Nobel's division Enka BV, later Akzo Industrial Fibers. The research name of the ...

or Kevlar as brand names). The covers are usually various rubber or plastic compounds specified by use of the belt. Steel conveyor belts are used when high strength class is required. For example, the highest strength class conveyor belt installed is made of steel cords. This conveyor belt has a strength class of and it operates at

Chuquicamata Chuquicamata ( ; referred to as Chuqui for short) is the largest open pit copper mine in terms of excavated volume in the world. It is located in the north of Chile, just outside Calama, at above sea level. It is northeast of Antofagasta and ...

mine, in

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the eas ...

. Polyester, nylon and cotton are popular with low strength classes. Aramid is used in the range . The advantages of using aramid are energy savings, enhanced lifetimes and improved productivity. As an example, a , underground belt installed at Baodian Coal Mine, part of in

Yanzhou Coal Mining Company Yanzhou Coal Mining Company Limited (), majority owned by Yankuang Group, is a coal mining company in Mainland China. It is engaged in underground mining coal preparation and sales, and railway transportation service of coal. Its products are ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

, was reported to provide energy savings of over 15%. Whilst

Shenhua Group Shenhua Group Corporation Limited was a Chinese state-owned mining and energy company. Shenhua Group was founded in October 1995 under the auspices of the State Council of the People's Republic of China. It was the largest coal-producing compan ...

, has installed several

conveyor belts, including a belt with a length of .

Applications

Today there are different types of conveyor belts that have been created for conveying different kinds of material available in PVC and rubber materials. Material flowing over the belt may be weighed in transit using a

beltweigher {{refimprove, date=August 2010 A beltweigher or belt weigher is a piece of industrial control equipment used to gauge the mass or flow rate of material travelling over a troughed (cupped) conveyor belt of any length which is able to adequately cont ...

. Belts with regularly spaced partitions, known as ''elevator belts'', are used for transporting loose materials up steep inclines. Belt Conveyors are used in self-unloading bulk freighters and in live bottom trucks. Belt conveyor technology is also used in conveyor transport such as

moving sidewalk Moving or Movin' may refer to: Moving of goods * Relocation (personal), the process of leaving one dwelling and settling in another * Relocation of professional sports teams * Relocation (computer science) * Structure relocation Music Album ...

s or

escalator An escalator is a moving staircase which carries people between floors of a building or structure. It consists of a motor-driven chain of individually linked steps on a track which cycle on a pair of tracks which keep the step tread horizo ...

s, as well as on many manufacturing assembly lines. Stores often have conveyor belts at the check-out counter to move shopping items, and may use

checkout divider A checkout divider is a small sign or bar meant for placement between items on a conveyor belt at a checkout in a supermarket or other retail store. Its purpose is to separate one customer's items from another customer's. Checkout dividers are ...

s in this process. Ski areas also use conveyor belts to transport skiers up the hill. Industrial and manufacturing applications for belt conveyors include package handling, trough belt conveyors, trash handling, bag handling, coding conveyors, and more. Integration of Human-Machine Interface(HMI) to operate the conveyor system is in the developing stages and will prove to be an efficient innovation. Some of the major global conveyor belt manufacturers and service providers are

Berndorf AG Berndorf may refer to several places: * Berndorf, Rhineland-Palatinate, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany *Berndorf, part of Twistetal, Hesse, Germany *Berndorf, Lower Austria Berndorf is a town in the district of Baden in Lower Austria in Austri ...

Continental AG Continental AG, commonly known as Continental or colloquially as Conti, is a German multinational automotive parts manufacturing company specializing in tires, brake systems, interior electronics, automotive safety, powertrain and chassis ...

, Fenner, Kale Conveyor,

Terra Nova Technologies Terra may often refer to: * Terra (mythology), primeval Roman goddess * An alternate name for planet Earth, as well as the Latin name for the planet Terra may also refer to: Geography Astronomy * Terra (satellite), a multi-national NASA scienti ...

ThyssenKrupp ThyssenKrupp AG (, ; stylized as thyssenkrupp) is a German industrial engineering and steel production multinational conglomerate. It is the result of the 1999 merger of Thyssen AG and Krupp and has its operational headquarters in Duisburg a ...

, HESE Maschinenfabrik GmbH and Tenova Takraf.

Long belt conveyors

The longest belt conveyor system in the world is in

Western Sahara Western Sahara ( '; ; ) is a disputed territory on the northwest coast and in the Maghreb region of North and West Africa. About 20% of the territory is controlled by the self-proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), while the ...

. It was built in 1972 by Friedrich Krupp GmbH (now thyssenkrupp) and is long, from the

phosphate In chemistry, a phosphate is an anion, salt, functional group or ester derived from a phosphoric acid. It most commonly means orthophosphate, a derivative of orthophosphoric acid . The phosphate or orthophosphate ion is derived from phosph ...

mines of Bu Craa to the coast south of El-Aaiun. The longest conveyor system in an airport is the Dubai International Airport baggage handling system at . It was installed by

Siemens Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational conglomerate corporation and the largest industrial manufacturing company in Europe headquartered in Munich with branch offices abroad. The principal divisions of the corporation are ''Industry'', ''E ...

and commissioned in 2008, and has a combination of traditional belt conveyors and tray conveyors. Boddington Bauxite Mine in Western Australia is officially recognized as having the world's longest single flight conveyor. Single flight means the load is not transferred, it is a single continuous systems for the entire length. This conveyor is a cable belt conveyor system with a conveyor feeding a conveyor. Cable belt conveyors are a variation on the more convention idler belt system. Instead of running on top of idlers, cable belt conveyors are supported by two endless steel cables (steel wire rope) which are in turn supported by idler pulley wheels. This system feeds bauxite through the difficult terrain of the Darling Ranges to the Worsley Alumina refinery. The second longest single trough belt conveyor is the Impumelelo conveyor near Secunda, South Africa. It was design by Conveyor Dynamics, Inc. in based in Bellingham, Washington, USA and constructed by ELB Engineering based in Johannesburg South Africa. The conveyor transports of coal from a mine to a refinery that converts the coal to diesel fuel. The third longest trough belt conveyor in the world is the Curragh conveyor near Westfarmers, QLD, Australia. Conveyor Dynamics, Inc. supplied the basic engineering, control system and commissioning. Detail engineering and Construction was completed by Laing O'Rourke. The longest single-belt international conveyor runs from Meghalaya in India to a cement factory at Chhatak

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mo ...

.Alspaugh, Mark, ''Bulk Material Handling By Conveyor Belt 7'', p 83 It is about long and conveys

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms w ...

and shale at , from the quarry in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

to the cement factory ( long in India and long in Bangladesh). The conveyor was engineered by AUMUND France and Larsen & Toubro. The conveyor is actuated by three synchronized drive units for a total power of about 1.8 MW supplied by ABB (two drives at the head end in Bangladesh and one drive at the tail end in India). The conveyor belt was manufactured in lengths on the Indian side and lengths on the Bangladesh side. The idlers, or rollers, of the system are unique in that they are designed to accommodate both horizontal and vertical curves along the terrain. Dedicated vehicles were designed for the maintenance of the conveyor, which is always at a minimum height of above the ground to avoid being flooded during monsoon periods.

Belt conveyor safety system

Conveyors used in industrial settings include tripping mechanisms such as trip cords along the length of the conveyor. This allows for workers to immediately shut down the conveyor when a problem arises. Warning alarms are included to notify employees that a conveyor is about to turn on. In the United States, the

Occupational Safety and Health Administration The Occupational Safety and Health Administration'' (OSHA ) is a large regulatory agency of the United States Department of Labor that originally had federal visitorial powers to inspect and examine workplaces. Congress established the agen ...

has issued regulations for conveyor safety, as OSHA 1926.555. Some other systems used to safeguard the conveyor are belt sway switches, speed switches, belt rip switch, and

emergency stop A kill switch, also known as an emergency stop (E-stop), emergency off (EMO) and as an emergency power off (EPO), is a safety mechanism used to shut off machinery in an emergency, when it cannot be shut down in the usual manner. Unlike a normal ...

s. The belt sway switch will stop the conveyor if the belt starts losing its alignment along the structure. The speed switch will stop the belt if the switch is not registering that the belt is running at the required speed. The belt rip switch will stop the belt when there is a cut, or a flap indicating that the belt is in danger of further damage. An emergency stop may be located on the conveyor control box in case of trip chord malfunctions.

References

External links

What's Flame Resistant Conveyor Belt?

The Conveyor Belt Guide
{{Authority control Belt drives Bulk material handling Freight transport Material-handling equipment