the different conveyor belt types & their benefits

Let’s begin our rundown with one of the most common conveyor belt types. Using a solid system that’s great for general use across many industry sectors, this conveyor belt is robust, reliable and highly adaptable. Solid, general-use belts use conveyor materials like rubber, nylon, polyester, neoprene or nitrile to provide a solid surface that can transport even loose or bulky goods with ease.

Your choice of conveyor materials matters when selecting the solid, general-use belt that is right for you. Industrial applications within the milling or mining fields use rubber to ensure the durability needed to handle and move heavy materials. Supermarkets on the other hand rely on PVC conveyor belts to keep things moving. Airports also commonly operate general-use conveyor belts to handle luggage, preferring conveyor materials like neoprene, rubber or polyester.

The versatility of general purpose conveyor belt types offers a long list of plus-points across countless industry sectors to ensure the conveyor belt can fulfil its primary duty with ease, efficiency and safety. Another benefit of utilising a solid, general-use conveyor belt is the fact that conveyor materials can be customised to make your system more suitable for its application.

Conveyor materials can be modified, incorporating different coatings, thicknesses and arrangements to improve the handling of specific goods. With this, you can make your conveyor belt appropriate for carrying food safely, fully operational in high temperatures, or better suited for bulk handling. 

Conveyor belts aren’t just used to move goods along, they can provide filtration for various materials. Filter conveyor belts use a system that allows materials to pass through to improve operations, productivity and safety across selected operations. Filter belts are commonly used to separate excess liquid from materials and can even be incorporated to remove toxins and other waste materials.

Filter belts use conveyor materials that are capable of filtering, such as metal and synthetic fibres.

Popular within water treatment facilities, the use of filter conveyor belts is primarily beneficial to health and safety. By getting a mechanical device to filter materials automatically, you can reduce manual movements, protect your workers, improve throughput, and cut labour costs even as operations grow.

Primarily used to aid the drying, cooling or heating of belted materials as they’re being transported, woven metal belts use an interlocking design made of metal chains or wiring to allow air to flow easily during motion. This specialist conveyor belt construction is widely used in the food and drink, electronics and glass manufacturing sectors thanks to its conveyor materials and features.

Courtesy of its unique conveyor materials and construction, manual movements can be effectively reduced to give workers a less hands-on, safer role within your industrial setting. Woven metal conveyor belts are highly customisable with designs able to be tailored to suit an application’s exact specifications.

This conveyor belt’s use of metal also ensures high temperature and water resistance, protection against corrosion, good tensile strength, and a longer service life than many other conveyor materials.

Using metal as their base conveyor materials, hinged belts deliver the movement and flexibility that some operations need to succeed. Thanks to these conveyor belt types and their use of interlocking hinges, the flat, solid conveyor belt system we are all familiar with can be rotated with ease.

Must-have conveyor belt types for the small product, scrap and recycling industries, hinged conveyor belts unlock a user friendliness, ease and flexibility that improves product movement to multiple locations. They are also extremely robust, making them well suited to the regular transport and sorting of heavy and bulk materials.

Unlike metal or fabric belts, these interlocking conveyor belt types use plastic as the lead conveyor material to ensure a modular design that works for the food and beverage or automotive industries.

Most interlocking belts are moulded using thermoplastics and can be repeatedly assembled or disassembled module by module in a chain-type construction. The use of thermoplastics is relatively new in the conveyor belt industry, with their strength; acid, alkali and salt water resistance; suitability to a wide range of temperatures; anti-viscosity qualities; generous lifting angle; and easy cleaning and maintenance unlocking a number of benefits across selected sectors.

Thanks to their use of plastic conveyor materials and modular designs, plastic interlocking conveyor belts can be deconstructed simply and as frequently as is necessary. This makes them easy to clean, maintain or repair. The ease of cleanliness offered by plastic interlocking belts is particularly revered in the food and beverage industry where safety and compliance are top priorities.