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When choosing a belt conveyor system, one of the most important decisions you&#;ll have to make is which belt it should be equipped with. In most cases it&#;s the only part of the conveyor that&#;s actually in contact with your parts, product or packaging.
Here are eight important questions to ask when choosing a belt:
What is the coefficient of friction? &#; Belt surfaces range from an extremely low coefficient of friction to a high coefficient of friction. Low friction belts are ideal for accumulation applications or side-entering or -exiting applications where product must slide while the belt continues to move. High friction belts are often found in incline applications up to 15° to ensure positive product movement simply through friction between the product and the belt.
What are the maximum and minimum temperatures? &#; There are two temperatures you should be concerned with: ambient operating temperature and temporary part temperature. Each is important for the long-term function of the belt. Ambient temperatures that are too cold can lead to brittleness and cracking of the belt; temperatures that are too high could lead to belt stretch or delamination at the splice. Short-term part temperature specifications ensure hot parts don&#;t damage the surface of the belt when they&#;re placed or dropped onto the conveyor.
What color is the belt? &#; Color is most important in inspection applications, whether it&#;s automated with cameras or a visual inspection by an operator. Proper color contrast with the product can be vital for spotting defects or impurities. Blue is very common in food applications since it&#;s a color that rarely appears naturally in foods, making it easy to spot residue after cleaning.
Is the belt cut resistant? &#; If your product has sharp edges, a cut resistant belt may be necessary to avoid cutting the surface of the belt. These belts typically include a hardened urethane or PVC top surface.
Should I use a sealed edge belt? &#; To reduce particulates in cleanroom environments, a sealed edge belt is typically recommended. These encapsulate the cut edges of the belt to seal in the fibers of the carcass. Without a sealed edge, those fibers may be released as the belt flexes around the pulley.
Does the belt have release properties? &#; In some applications, product may tend to stick to the belt, whether it&#;s a sticky confectionery product or glue from a packaging process. A silicone belt helps to ensure the product is released cleanly.
Do I need cleats? &#; Cleated belts are common for applications where parts need to be pushed up an incline or restricted from sliding or rolling down a decline. They&#;re also used to maintain product spacing, especially in applications where parts are fed manually by an operator. Cleats are placed at custom intervals based on the customer&#;s specifications and are available in a variety of heights for different products and applications.
What&#;s in stock? &#; All these considerations mean nothing if finding the perfect belt would push the lead time past the date you need the conveyor. With hundreds of potential belt types, it would be impractical for conveyor manufacturers to stock every type. Most manufacturers stock a limited number (at QC Conveyors we stock seven types, which cover about 95% of our conveyor orders) and rely on the belt manufacturers to supply others as needed. This can double or triple the lead time for the conveyor, so it&#;s important to know which belts your conveyor manufacturer stocks, especially if you need a conveyor quickly. You may be able to compromise on one of the other requirements to help meet your lead time requirement.
To see photos and specifications of the various types of belts that are available, visit the Belts section of our website. You&#;ll find filters that help you narrow down the belts to find the perfect one for your application.
In addition, our Applications Engineers are always available to help select the proper belt for your application. They have decades of experience with various products and applications.
Choosing a conveyor system manufacturer is no simple task, particularly when you&#;re under a deadline. This guide with questions to ask, along with common answers from both Glide-Line and our competitors, can help you in your decision-making process as you select a partner. Jump to these sections:
Lead Time Questions
Service Questions
Capabilities Questions
Cost Questions
Lead Time Questions
1. What are the manufacturer&#;s standard conveyor options?
Lead time will be greatly impacted by the number of standard versus custom conveyor parts you need in an applications system. If you need both short lead time and variations from the standard norms, look for a manufacturer with the greatest variety and flexibility in their standard conveyor system options.
2. What are the manufacturer&#;s lead times for standard conveyors?
Most conveyor systems manufacturers&#; lead times from order to delivery are 6 &#; 12 weeks. Sometimes this can be expedited in return for a hefty fee.
Partnering with a versatile conveyor systems manufacturer like Glide-Line will do the most to shorten your lead time. Glide-Line&#;s manufacturing process is built for quick lead times; we can ship conveyors in 2 to 3 weeks, and devices such as lifts, lift and transfers, lift and locate stations, and more in 4 to 6 weeks. This conveyor lead time is cut in half from other manufacturers and saves your client significant time and money.
3. What is the typical lead time for customized or altered conveyor elements?
If you can&#;t avoid customizations in your conveyor application, the next step is to seek a manufacturing partner able to deliver customized elements as quickly as possible. Better yet, seek a partner with configurable or alterable options; they&#;re faster than customizations.
For example, Glide-Line&#;s 360 series conveyor is built to be as flexible and configurable as possible - the most flexible conveyor on the market today. So, instead of customizing a conveyor from scratch to meet your client&#;s goal, you&#;re configuring a standard, which significantly cuts down on lead time.
Even if your unique application requires true customization, an experienced flexible conveyor manufacturer will have built their manufacturing process to be incredibly efficient, making for quick conveyor lead times even for truly customized conveyor solutions.
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4. Is there something different in the company&#;s manufacturing process enabling them to produce engineered designs quicker than most?
You&#;ll be able to gauge a manufacturer&#;s ability to innovate with new solutions, new processes, and new customer-focused initiatives based partially on this response. A traditional company will simply speed up their current process to accommodate a shorter lead time request, often at the expense of your client (and possibly at the expense of attention to detail). However, an innovative company will employ a more efficient conveyor manufacturing process to address this frequent concern of applications engineers.
Glide-Line, for example, has designed their manufacturing process for conveyor systems around customers&#; desires for a shorter lead time, effectively cutting lead times in half for all standard and configured orders.
5. Can the company expedite materials if needed?
For some manufacturers, this answer will be &#;yes&#;. But, your follow-up question should be, &#;At what cost?&#; Paying twice as much for expedited delivery may not be worth it to your customer. Instead, look for a conveyor manufacturer with limited cost increases for shortened lead times to minimize the impact to your customer&#;s bottom line and increase overall ROI of the conveyor system.
Service Questions
6. How easy is it to maintain the conveyor belt?
Your client&#;s maintenance team will appreciate attention paid to the work they do, and how easy it will be to accomplish any maintenance on the conveyor. Easy maintenance impacts your client&#;s throughput and RO and improves positive employee relationships because their priorities were considered in the process.
Glide-Line&#;s belts can be removed from the top of the conveyor, meaning they&#;re generally easier to access than most other conveyor belts. Plus, we ship our belts endless, so they don&#;t have to be spliced on site by the customer. Since splicing requires special training, a special tool, and a lot more time, changing a Glide Line belt is significantly quicker and easier.
7. How does service take place?
Service on your client&#;s conveyors can be provided by both internal and external sources, depending on their current set-up. However, it&#;s important for your conveyor manufacturer to also provide service and support when the need arises. More important still is the speed at which that service is provided, and in what format. The goal is to minimize downtime.
8. Is the manufacturer responsive to inquiries, requests, and service requirements?
A responsive manufacturer shows collaborative quality in their observable actions. Plus, it&#;s obvious a highly responsive manufacturer will be more responsive throughout the terms of the business transaction, making for an overall smoother experience. When your lead time is already short, you can&#;t afford to wait around for responses from a manufacturer who may not have the answers you&#;re looking for.
Capabilities Questions
9. What are the manufacturer&#;s standard conveyor options?
Lead time will be greatly impacted by the number of standard versus custom conveyor parts you need in an applications system. If you require both short lead time and variations from the standard norms, look for a manufacturer with the greatest variety and flexibility in their standard conveyor system options.
10. Which type of conveyor and controls will be the most productive for the materials I need conveyed?
This will depend on your specific situation. Your goal should be to find a collaborative conveyor manufacturer capable of delivering thought-provoking and unique solutions when necessary. Our recent post &#;Unique Assembly Conveyor Layouts and The Best Applications&#; gives examples of the most flexible and productive conveyor layouts we&#;ve designed for some of our clients&#; most challenging applications.
Cost Questions
11. How should I calculate the ROI of my conveyor?
The return on investment of your conveyor or conveyor system can be measured via its throughput, energy costs/savings, and time cost/savings for manufacturing, operation, and maintenance.
Ideally, you can get a quote instantly using an in-context configurator, IMPACT! from Glide-Line. With a traditional configurator, calculating the cost of your multi-strand conveyor system frequently necessitates a discussion with the manufacturer&#;s sales representative. It could take hours or even days to receive pricing, and every time there&#;s a change to the system, there&#;s a change to the price. With an in-context configurator as your conveyor design software, all the system calculations are instant, available to you the moment you make the change. You&#;re able to find and quote pricing on your own, without waiting for a salesperson. IMPACT! is Excel-based, so it&#;s easy to learn, and it can even drive models in SOLIDWORKS automatically.
Armed with these answers, now you can more easily compare competitive conveyor manufacturers and choose a partner that best fits your client&#;s needs. Learn more in our ebook, How to Cut Conveyor System Lead Time in Half.
Contact us to discuss your requirements of Radius Lbp Chain. Our experienced sales team can help you identify the options that best suit your needs.