Three simple ways to take the weight out of your conveyor chain
Conveyor chain is used in a wide variety of arduous and highly demanding applications – from the transport of biomass fuels to cement, steel work, pulp and paper and the recycling industry.
Strength, durability and reliability are key. And system downtime, whether it’s planned or unplanned, can be hugely costly. But some simple changes to your conveyor chain design can make all the difference. In this post, we offer three suggestions to help you slim-down your conveyor chain and reduce the frequency of scheduled and unscheduled outages.
1. Change to a welded pin and bush chain
Swapping your chain to welded pin and bush chain means you can reduce the size of your chain for the exact same application.
Replacing M315A160 with the welded pin and bush chain M224A160, for example, not only takes up considerably less space, it also reduces the total weight of the chain by 30%.
The M315 welded pin and bush conveyor chain also offers an increased breaking load of 440-470kN, which puts it well above the ISO standard of 315kN. Likewise, replacing the FV250A160 with FV180A160, will result in a chain which is 40% lighter.
2. Upgrade your flights
We’ve helped many of our customers to reduce the weight of their flights (or scrapers) by as much as 40%. The solution? By replacing their standard heavier steel flights with INNO wooden flights.
INNO flights are made from specially processed multi-laminated beech which is light-weight, as well as being easy to install and more resistant to wear. Once assembled, INNO wooden flights weigh just one tenth the weight of traditional steel scrapers, but while still offering the same durability.
They are available in three different strengths (INNO 100, INNO 500 and INNO 1000) depending on your application and the type of materials being conveyed. INNO 1000, for example, is ideally suited to conveying materials with a higher water content as it has a much lower moisture absorption rate.
3. Take the weight out of your sprockets
Reducing the weight of your sprockets means that less energy is required to drive the system – which provides the benefit of day-in day-out cost savings.
You’ll also notice less wear on the overall system as well as a reduction in maintenance costs.
Unscheduled downtime is a problem that costs the materials handling industry millions of pounds every year due to the added cost of goods and the loss of production.
Helping your conveyors to shift a little ‘excess weight’ could offer some tangible and measurable benefits for your company’s pocket.
