LIGHTWEIGHT CONVEYOR BELT
Cheese on a profile cover belt Meat processing with troughed belt
Selecting a lightweight belt can be an intimidating experience for the buyer charged with finding "the right belt" for a conveyor or processing machine. For some applications several belt types may perform well but there are other times when the absolute correct belt specification is required.
It is not practical to list every possible lightweight belt specification available. The buyer may use the general information below to become familiar with belt styles or families and the characteristics of each along with custom fabricated attributes and splice options.
Contact C&R Resources by email or phone 509-460-2425 for assistance in selecting the best belt for an application.
Belt Family | Features | Typical Applications |
| Plied Rubber SBR, Gum, Nitrile, XNBR | Impact & wear resistant, economical | Agriculture & manufacturing, |
| Solid Woven PVC | Rip & puncture resistant, economical | Agriculture, bucket elevators, package handling |
| Monofilament PVC, PU, Silicon, EVA, Rubber, etc. | Many variations of constructions & cover profiles, lays flat, dimensionally stable and easily fabricated | Precision machine belts for low profile conveyors with small pulleys or nose bars. |
| Solid Plastic | No fabric plies, easy welded splicing, cut resistant | Food handling, meat, poultry, & fish processing |
| Cotton | Conforms to irregular conveyor designs and good product release properties. | Used by bakeries and confectionaries for product release. |
| Nylon core Rubber, leather | Non fabric strength member, easily slit and spliced, engineered design | Flat power transmission belt for tangential drives and for conveying of paper & box making. |
| Woven endless Custom covers | Truely endles, no splice, custom designed covers and attachments | Puller belts, packaging machines or where ever seamless belts are required. |
| Syncronous Urethane | Timing belt construction can be engineered for size, strength and attachments | Linear drives, conveying and power transmission - robotics |
| Poly screen | Polyester mesh fabric | Dewatering of vegetables or screening |
NOTE: | Cover compounds are seleted based upon performance requirements; food grade, oil or grease resistant, heat resistant, product grip or release qualities, etc., | |
Custom Accessories for Lightweight Conveyor Belts
A major advantage of thermoplastic belts over rubber is the ease with which they can be custom fabricated with accessories that are designed to perform specific tasks. Below are a few of the typical accessories that may be added to lightweight belts.
Corrugated sidewall Finger cleats Scoop cleats V-Guides
Lightweight Conveyor Belt Splicing
Lightweight rubber belts can be hot vulcanized with the traditional "stepped ply" procedure using large belt presses. If performed on-site press clearance must be considered and this service may be considered expensive. Cold bonding with adhesive is also an option but the conveyor usually must not run for a day.
Mechanical fasteners are available for lightweight belts and the best choice of style, size and metal depends upon belt thickness, pulley diameters, belt scrappers, etc., It is possible to have a hinged metal lace covered when using certain belt styles.
Thermoplastic belts can be spliced endless much more easily than rubber belts and with greater reliability. The presses are smaller and the time in the press is less. Pictured below are some of the splice preparation styles available. The flexible finger requires a hinge pin.
Flexible finger lace Step lap joint Single finger splice Finger over finger