Summary:
5 Conveyor Belt Problems and safety maintenance tip
What are the problems with conveyor belt?
How to prevent conveyor belt problems?
Safety measures for maintenance
The conveyor that move goods is just as crucial to material handling as the materials themselves. The ability to examine items and transport them across your facility is the main objective of most conveyor systems, but this is not achievable without the installation of an appropriate handling system.
Conveyance systems designed with conventional metallic parts may eventually start to exhibit symptoms of wear and tear (conveyor problem), necessitating unwelcome maintenance and downtime. The performance of your project execution is directly impacted by the operational quality of the machinery, regardless of whether your system loses traction due to high-volume activity, stiffens with rust, or corrodes from exposure.
What are the problems with conveyor belt?
While it is difficult to list every undesirable circumstance you will ever experience with your conveyor belt, the following is a summary of some of the issues you are most likely to experience, along with their most likely effects.
Mistracking
For your system to get the results you want, conveyor belt tracking—the process of aligning and controlling a belt to keep a particular path—is essential. Mistracking, often known as the belt drifting from one side to the other, puts you at risk for unanticipated downtime, belt damage, product damage, and maintenance troubleshooting problems. When a belt deviates from its intended path, uneven belt wear and even a system breakdown may result.
Belt Slippage
Belt slippage is one of the conveyor belt problems.Too little or too much strain on conveyor belts can have an immediate effect on how well your operations run. When your head pulley becomes worn out, there is insufficient traction to grip the belt, which results in excessive stretching, noisy squeals, and carriage slippage. To eliminate buildup, enhance wrap on the drive pulley, or adjust tension requirements, time-consuming maintenance is frequently necessary.
Seized Rollers
Steel has historically been used to build the majority of conveyor belt systems. These rollers can eventually grow sharp edges when they seize up, causing the belt to track unevenly along the center line. This can harm the goods or packages being transported in addition to endangering safe working settings. You’ll probably have to endure a lengthy shut-down period if the belt completely fails.
Blockage
Any conveyor belt system’s main objective is to move objects swiftly from one place to another, frequently via a convoluted conveyor system. Therefore, it stands to reason that when this efficient transit is hampered, the entire system ceases to function.
It’s far too simple for a package to be intercepted. This results in the object behind the previous one being captured, and the pileup just continues to grow from there. It may cause the system as a whole to become backed up and jammed.
Random occurrences are difficult to forecast and frequently impossible to prevent, but you may take a lot of action to remove obstacles that can be avoided. Make sure there are no sharp edges, surfaces, corners, or other crevices on your conveyor belts that can catch goods as they pass. Even though something appears to not be a major concern right now, it is always preferable to deal with it while it is still little. Otherwise, it may quickly escalate into a much bigger problem.
Material Carryback
Blockages happen when packages get snagged on jagged edges and obstruct the other items, whereas material carryback happens when there is an accumulation of material on the belt itself. When working with substances like clays or mineral ores, a little quantity of residue may be left behind. Although it might not seem like much, this stuff will build up beneath your belt and cause issues with your rollers and pulleys.
This carryback may also compromise future safety due to potential fire hazards and the potential danger of inhaling specific compounds on a regular basis. The carryback of a transaction also results in a loss of profit. When working with premium materials, you run the risk of losing a substantial profit if you lose a small amount of them each time they are on the conveyor belt.
Installing a cleaning system that will scrape your belt to make sure no material is left behind will help you eliminate material carryback.
How to prevent conveyor belt problems?
Common conveyor belt faults result in a variety of problems, including lost productivity, damaged products, staff injuries, and operational shutdowns. To fix the issues, they frequently need lengthy maintenance and repair procedures.
Implementing a regular preventative maintenance program is the most thorough strategy for reducing frequent conveyor issues. Preventive maintenance is a practical technique to find conveyor problems early on, when they are simpler to fix and before they become serious problems.
Naturally, it’s crucial to go by all the greatest safety recommendations when working on conveyors, including strict lock-out/tag-out procedures that guarantee the equipment you’re repairing has its power switched off.
Safety measures for maintenance
Conveyors can nonetheless cause significant damage if the proper safety precautions aren’t taken, while not being as inherently dangerous as many other kinds of heavy gear and equipment. Consider these important safety measures before beginning any maintenance work that you or any of your team members will be performing.
Switch off the conveyor
1. Switch off the conveyor
2. Don’t accept more responsibility than you can handle
3. Get in touch with experts if you need more assistance.
It is imperative to emphasize this idea. The conveyor system should not be serviced while it is in use. If your fingers chance to get caught in the equipment, doing so would be a good way to get them crushed or fractured. The electrical current that powers the conveyor belt is even more hazardous. Take extra care to protect yourself from risks like these to prevent issues. Before you start performing maintenance, be careful and make sure everything is turned off.
Don’t accept more responsibility than you can handle
A conveyor system requires a significant quantity of electricity, which is not something to be taken lightly. If you’re unskilled and unsure of what you’re doing, that type of power can result in severe harm. Take a step back if you start to worry that the issue with your conveyor belt is more complicated than what we’ve discussed thus far. It could be necessary to engage a qualified maintenance crew. Even though it could seem like an extra burden, it’s preferable to be safe than to wind up seriously harming your system or putting yourself or a worker in risk.