For the first time, synthetic materials, like urethane and synthetic rubber were used as the belts on the conveyors. More complicated rotary systems were also used to power the belts, including better rolling systems, the V-belt assembly, and other tricks to make the use of a conveyor belt more efficient. Today, the conveyor belt is an integral part of any manufacturing process. The widespread use of these conveyance systems is in part thanks to the original inventors of the system that lived hundreds of years ago, and to all of the inventors since to improved on the design and made it easier to use in everyday life.
With the rise of industrialization, which began in the second half of the 18th century in England, conveyor belts became increasingly commonplace in industrial factories. Largely motivated by the military, a wide range of industries were equipped with these time- and money-saving transport systems, including abattoirs and bakers.
In the automotive industry, contrary to what most people believe, it was not actually Henry Ford who introduced assembly lines, but Ransom Eli Olds, the founder of the Oldsmobile brand. His design for a continuous assembly line was patented in , and his company was the first to launch high-volume series-production cars on the market.
However, instead of using conveyor belts, the raw body shells in his factory were transported on wooden pallets from one production stage to the next. This pallet conveyor technology is still used today. Ludwig Roselius was probably the first European to use conveyor belts. The production plant, opened in the port of Bremen in for his coffee production company Kaffee HAG, was able to increase daily production of coffee to 13, pounds.
In , ten years after the Ford Motor Company was founded, Henry Ford became the first car manufacturer to use conveyor belts in the production of the legendary Ford Model-T.
Henry Ford and his employees had studied the obvious breakthrough in terms of efficiency and productivity offered by the new technology in abattoirs in Chicago and Cincinnati. Adopting the new technology led to a sensational reduction in the length of time it took to build each Model-T — from twelve and a half hours down to 1 hour 33 minutes! Of course, it goes without saying that there was more to it than simply installing a few conveyor belts from one day to the next.
In fact, it took a full five years for all the necessary changes to be implemented at the Ford Motor Company- and a number of very astute minds who were put to the difficult task of optimizing the planning and development. They were made of a leather or canvas belt that traveled over a flat wooden bed. To give you a better understanding of monumental moments in conveyor belt history, we created the following timeline:.
As the leader in the plastic chain conveyors industry, Span Tech specializes in developing unique, customizable technical solutions for processing applications in a variety of industries. Quite like conveyor systems, we have our own bit of history. In , we released the SuperTight chain which produced a tighter conveyor turning radius. In , we developed the 4-Rod Twist conveyor which allows for 90 degrees of product rotation in 60 inches. Contact us for excellent customer service, expert knowledge and products you can count on.
Post Topics. Conveyors can be used across various industries but are extremely popular within the distribution and warehouse space as well as in the manufacturing and production industry. They are installed in places like Hermes national sorting hub and have seen massive success from installing an automated conveyor system into their national hub due to the increased throughput the systems can handle. Due to conveyor systems being adaptive, they are able to be used in most industries due to the variation of weight, length, and items they can carry.
These type of conveyors use a rubber material to convey irregular items with small surface areas which stop the goods or plates falling between sections. Belt conveyor technology is used in moving people in public places such as the moving isles between terminals at an airport, escalators in a shopping centre, transporting skiers up a slope, or moving your items down the line at the checkout in your local supermarket. Dubai International Airport has the longest conveyor system in the world for their baggage handling system which is a mixture of different conveyor belts and features for a baggage handling system at a combined length of 39 miles.
Conveyor systems can be used for a variety of reasons but are mainly used for labour cost-saving while increasing throughput on a section of the production or transportation process which of course means they can get more products manufactured or sorted and sent out to customers in a quicker and more efficient manner.
Due to reduced labour being needed to carry out the task, the conveyor systems usually reduce the space required to move items, allowing the process to run in a smaller section of the facility and freeing up working space. Belt conveyors are the most commonly used power conveyors because they are the most versatile and the least expensive while being able to carry a variety of shaped objects, large or small, light and heavy, jigged edges or square boxes.
To make sure items can go round the system in the correct way, belt conveyors can be manufactured with curved sections which use tapered rollers and curved belting which can have additional pieces such as guards, gates, convergers, RFID scanners, and more to ensure easy access to different sections and no damage of goods.
A reason why these type of systems are popular in the logistics, postal sorting, and warehouse industries. Belt conveyors can be used to transport items through elevation, another reason why companies and industries use them. Have you noticed what the luggage goes round on and how it gets fed into visible sight?
Sometimes you might see the luggage come down from an elevation on a declined conveyor belt. Another example of elevated conveyors being handy is within handling raw materials. Elevated conveyor systems come in handy when moving coal, grains, sand, gold, sulfur, and many more raw materials. They can be transported over gentle slopes or gentle curvatures and this is where a toughed belt conveyor would be used.
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