4 Ways to Reduce Conveyor Belt Damage

Conveyor belts are both the most important and most expensive conveyor component. To help you reduce damage to your conveyor belt and the potential costly exercise of a belt replacement, we discuss below four ways to reduce belt damage.

1. Appropriate Belt Type ​​

The type of material and the environment of your conveying will greatly affect the service life of your conveyor belt as the specification of belt will wear more quickly if it isn’t suited to the application.  There are multiple grades of rubber conveyor belting, each of which have special properties that ensure their suitability.

For example,If your conveyor requires the use of Grade A, but you instead installed a general-purpose N grade rubber belt you would find that the N grade belt would be more susceptible to wear from the abrasive material. Thus, the service life would be reduced and the belt will require replacement sooner than a Grade A belt.

To reduce carryback and the associated wear on the conveyor belt, it’s important to keep the belt as clean as possible during operation. Cleaning of the belt can be effectively achieved with the appropriate belt scraper, v-plows, spray bars and brush cleaners.

3. Impact Production

When large and heavy material impacts the conveyor belt, especially at the impact zones, damage can occur to the belt. Impact damage can include tears in the belt or, if the velocity of the impacting material is high enough, the objects can puncture holes in the belt.

3.Prevention of Mis-tracking

The conveyor belt can be prone to mis-tracking for various reasons, examples include worn conveyor pulley and material build up. When the belt mis-tracks, it is prone to damage and additional wear, especially along the edge of the belt where unwanted contact with surrounding structure may occur.