Belt Conveyors

What is a Belt Conveyor?

A belt conveyor is a system designed to transport or move physical items like materials, goods, even people from one point to another. Unlike other conveying means that employ chains, spirals, hydraulics, etc., belt conveyors will move the items using a belt. 

Components of a Belt Conveyor

A standard belt conveyor system has a head pulley, tail pulley, idler rollers, belt, and frame.

Head Pulley

The head pulley is coupled with the actuator and the electric motor. It drives the conveyor, acting as the pulling force. The head pulley is located at the point that the conveyor offloads, known as the discharge end of a belt conveyor. Since it drives the whole system, it is often necessary to increase the traction of its belt with a rough jacket covering its outer surface. The jacket is referred to as a legging.         

The head pulley usually has the largest diameter of all the pulleys. Sometimes a system can have multiple pulleys that act as drive pulleys. The pulley at the discharge end, is a drive roller usually with the biggest diameter, and will be identified as the head pulley.

Return or Tail Pulley

This is located at the loading end of the belt conveyor. Sometimes it comes with a wing shape to clean the belt by letting material fall aside to the support members.

In a simple belt conveyor setup, the tail pulley will be mounted on guides usually slotted to allow the belt’s tension. In other belt conveying systems as we shall see, tensioning of the belt is left to another roller called the take-up roller.

Idler Roller

These are rollers employed along the length of the belt to support the belt and load, prevent sagging, align the belt, and clean up the carryback (material left sticking on to the belt).

Idler rollers can either do all of the above or any one of them, but in any space, they will always act as support for the belt.

Troughing Idlers

Troughing idlers will have three idler rollers set up in a configuration that makes a “trough” of the belt. They are located on the side that carries the load on the belt conveyor. The idler in the center is fixed, with the two on the ends able to be adjusted. This is so the angle and depth of the trough can be varied.

Benefits of Using Conveyor Belt Systems

Conveyor belt systems are indispensable mechanical apparatuses with their cheapness, ease of use, wide usage range from small objects to giant industrial products.

There are the benefits of conveyor belts; ·Large transmission flow rate, ·Very low energy requirement, ·Low investment and low service costs, ·Stable and trouble free transportation of products, ·It is easy to use, ·Less manpower and higher productivity ·Continuity