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The Importance of Industrial Conveyor Systems

10 November 2017

Welcome to our opening treatise, an article that will illustrate the importance of industrial conveyor systems. First of all, you should know that this moving ribbon acts as a transporting backbone for countless industries. Mines use conveyor systems, as do quarries. The packaging industry, waste treatment plants, manufacturing facilities, they all rely on the workflow facilitating features of this elongated contrivance. Let’s take a closer look at these applications.

Industrial Conveyors: Mines and Quarries

A kilometre-long extractive link is busily rumbling away inside a subterranean mine shaft. Tough engineering plastics form the core of the conveyor system. They’re strengthened with woven fibres and steel mesh. Extracted minerals come rushing down a feed hopper, they impact the flexible material, and then they’re carried toward a series of vibratory screening decks. The quarrying site is similarly equipped with a rugged conveyance belt. Optimized to deliver toughened material transporting strength, the belt here is shaped to ensure the carriage of boulder-sized granite. Both systems, as you’d expect, are supported by dust and liquid proof pulley bearings, all the better to ensure the mechanical integrity of every moving part.

Reinventing the Conveyance Backbone

When a non-techy type thinks of industrial conveyor systems, the conjured image speaks volumes. There’s the image of a rubberized belt, of pulleys and pulley drums. What about the reality of the situation, the real world applications that are redefining this engineering solution? Well, when the manufacturing sector moves large vehicle parts, a belted ribbon of black plastic doesn’t always work out, right? Instead, large-diameter steel rollers move the parts forward while durable elastomeric bumpers act as guide rails. Alternatively, the steel rollers form a critical part of a synchronized mechanical line. One line of rollers and pulleys conveys the parts forward, then a secondary deck is actuated by a P.L.C (Programmable Logic Controller) so that the system intelligently reroutes the product. In other words, productive industrial conveyor systems have evolved way beyond the conventional linear workflow model, to the point that the moving parts can direct the conveyed materials in any conceivable manner.

Industrial conveyor systems adapt to their environment. They’re the aluminium-plated panels that carry food, the steel-laced rubber strips that carry minerals or granite, and they’re also the steel rollers that convey packages. Birthed of a linear processing mindset, today’s systems can do more. They carry products forward, flip those products into other conveyance streams, and generally provide enough armoured material strength to handle the most challenging industrial applications. Working seamlessly in the background, oil-bathed gears and sealed roller mounts carry the load, even when there’s water or dust suspended in the air.