Page 14 - MetalForming December 2011

Slash Operating Costs of
Pay attention to belt tension, tracking, and pulley diameter to optimize conveyor performance and component life and avoid unplanned line stoppages.
BY CHARLES MITCHELL
Low-profile conveyors serve key roles in production and assem- bly of all sorts of metal prod- ucts. Broadly speaking, we’re talking about compact belt conveyors with 1- or 2-in. pulley diameters and max- imum belt widths of 24 in. Typically used in 24/7 applications in packag- ing, assembly, labeling, inspection and sorting, low-profile conveyors
Charles Mitchell is president, Conveyor Technologies Ltd., Milford, OH: www.conveyortechltd.com.
Low-Profile Conveyors
form critical production links where unplanned downtime or time-con- suming maintenance is intolerable. Upstream equipment continues to churn out product, so line stoppages, planned or unplanned, must be min- imized.
Certainly the most critical areas of low-profile conveyors that draw main- tenance attention are the belt and the pulley/bearing system. Speed, load, accumulation and inclined operation increase forces on these components, as well as on the drive system, high-
lighting problem areas such as belt tension.
Belt manufacturers universally cite correct belt tension and crowned pul- leys as keys to long belt life and con- sistent slip-free performance with positive self tracking. Incorrect belt tension causes a high percentage of component-related failures and main- tenance issues. Whether over- or under-tensioned, incorrect belt ten- sion can cause a variety of problems, including bearing overload, mis-track- ing, belt slippage and accelerated
12 MetalForming/December 2011
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A conveyor featuring a tool- less swing-up tail pulley enables 1-min. belt exchanges while retaining the tension setting.