Sure, as far as you can recollect, your conveyor belt has given you no problems so far. A decent amount of time has passed and it’s still seemingly running as smooth as butter. Well, that’s great, but that doesn’t automatically mean that nothing will happen in the future either. After all, most things across the board tend to show signs of breakdown sooner or later beyond a certain point.
Hence, the onus is completely on you to make sure that you take proper care of your conveyor belt in every possible way. Once you do that, you need not have to worry all that much about a premature breakdown taking place, as chances of that happening will be much less.
So how do you ensure that you ultimately end up getting the most out of your conveyor belt? Here are 6 simple tips to do so :-
- Choosing the correct belt: In this regard, there are a couple of factors that you will have to keep in mind. Some of the factors include – the products being conveyed, minimum pulley, temperature, speed and load size. Keeping the aforementioned aspects in mind, you are sure to get hold of the best belt for the job.
- Applying the correct tension: This is an aspect a great number of people go wrong in. Once the over-tension of belts take place, you will being to see the laps coming apart or prematurely pulled out. Furthermore, this leads to the ruin of shafts and bearings as well.Since most belts happen to be tensioned around the elongation of 0.4% and 0.7%, you need to keep the particular elongation in mind. Just remember to avoid putting more tension on the belt to make it turn.
- Making sure that the belt is tracked properly: While replacing an old belt with a new one, there are enough chances that the old belt would have caused a few changes to the conveyor over a certain period of time. So do make sure that you make the necessary adjustments for proper tracking, as well as getting the conveyor back to its original specifications.
- Ensuring that the conveyor is in good condition: As long as you ensure that this is done, you can be sure that your conveyor will run for a longer time without any issues. Make sure that it is level and square and there should not be any idle conveyor rollers.
- The importance of cleanliness: Pollution of any kind happens to be the number one cause of belt failure. Hence, especially if your conveyor is in the food industry, you cannot afford to forget getting it cleaned on a daily basis.
- The proper storage of conveyor belts: In the case of belt failure, it is imperative that you stock extra belts, just in case. Otherwise, smaller belts need to be stored in plastic bags in order to protect them from contamination, light and moisture.
As long as you keep these particular factors in mind, you don’t need to worry about your conveyor belt. Not only will you end up extending the life of your conveyor belt, but you will also end up saving a great deal of time and money as well.
Just remember this – there is no great rocket science or technical knowledge in any of the aforementioned tips. There is no great deal of expertise required to do the same either. Many people make the automatic assumption that it’s simply too hard, when nothing could be further from the truth. All you need to do is take good care of your conveyor belt and make sure that it stays in good shape.
