**1. Conveyor Belt Overview:**
– Point of contact between power transmission belt and pulley
– Conveyor belts use wide belt and pulleys supported by rollers or flat pan
– Durable and reliable components in automated distribution and warehousing
– Versatile, inexpensive, and commonly used for transporting regular and irregular shaped objects of various sizes and weights
**2. Conveyor Belt History:**
– Primitive conveyor belts date back to the 19th century
– Thomas Robins developed conveyor belts for carrying coal and ores in 1892
– Steel conveyor belts were invented and produced by Sandvik in 1901
– Richard Sutcliffe revolutionized the mining industry with conveyor belts in 1905
– Henry Ford introduced conveyor-belt assembly lines in 1913
**3. Conveyor Belt Structure:**
– Belts consist of layers: top cover, carcass, and bottom cover
– Carcass provides linear strength and shape, made of materials like steel, polyester, nylon, cotton, and aramid
– Covers made of various rubber or plastic compounds
– Steel conveyor belts used for high strength applications
**4. Conveyor Belt Applications:**
– Used in material handling, manufacturing, and distribution for straight lines, elevation changes, or direction alterations
– Different types like troughed belt, pipe conveyors, and sandwich belt conveyors for specific applications
– Used in self-unloading bulk freighters, live bottom trucks, moving sidewalks, escalators, manufacturing assembly lines, and stores
**5. Conveyor Belt Components and Safety:**
– Drive arrangement includes reducer gear boxes, drive motors, and couplings
– Other components: scrapers, chutes, skirts, take up assembly, safety switches
– Safety mechanisms like trip cords, warning alarms, belt sway switches, speed switches, belt rip switches, and emergency stops
– Worn rubber belts can be reused for various purposes
– Safety measures include regular maintenance, emergency stop buttons, operator training, guardrails, and compliance with safety regulations
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 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, salt, coal, ore, sand, overburden and more.
