Many attempts have been made to correct belt misalignment with pivot and tilt mechanisms, sensing rolls, or guide rolls. In order for a trainer to respond, the belt must have already misaligned. The training idler then compensates, pushing the belt in the opposite direction where it often over-travels and the process repeats itself. The result is a belt that continually walks from side to side.
If you are attempting to guide the conveyor back into its path, you have likely already lost the battle. The belt’s tendency is to find the place of lowest tension, or equilibrium – so it stays centered on the structure. For this reason, in a wide variety of applications, the ON-Track® Belt Tracking Idler has proven to be the reliable solution to this common problem.
With new technology found in the ON-Track® Belt Tracking Idler from Richwood, the design focuses on the prevention of belt sidetracking and misalignment rather than correcting misalignment after it occurs.
“What makes the ON-TrackÒ different is the fact that it does not need the belt to misalign because it keeps it from ever going off-track to begin with, by applying tension to both sides of the belt. The belt’s own tendency to find equilibrium keeps it in the right place,” says Scott Smith, senior applications engineer at Richwood.
Should the belt attempt to misalign, the gentle tension differential created by the ON-Track® unit keeps the belt in place in the centre of the conveyor structure. The ON-Track® uses a multiple-roll design that creates a smooth arc, which helps guide the conveyor as tension gets progressively greater toward the edges. This system works by safely controlling where the belt travels instead of reacting to belt misalignment.
This alternative has demonstrated reliable success in the field.
Field application
72-inch belt width / 6000 tph / 1200 fpm
This location experienced severe belt-tracking issues. Their first experience with ON-TrackÒ was on a 72-inch belt running 6000 TPH and moving at 1200 FPM. A Richwood representative directly involved with this project provided the details.
“One of the biggest problems was with the belt going off-track through the tail section, it was running under the seal and ruining their skirt rubber, not to mention creating a constant mess,” says the representative.
The initial survey showed the belt traveling eight to nine inches back and forth on the tail pulley even though they were using a traditional belt trainer. Once the ON-Track® was installed and the old trainer removed, this issue was resolved. They are very pleased with the results and no longer deal with belt mistracking.
According to CEMA, the fundamentals of proper tracking include a conveyor structure frame that is aligned and leveled, and tail and head pulleys of the conveyor that are square and aligned on the conveyor frame. In addition, the belting must be straight, and splices must be square, belting should be in good contact with troughing rolls, all troughing and return idlers should be square with the conveyor frame, belting must be properly tensioned, and material should be loaded centrally on the belt. In real-world applications meeting these ideal conditions can be challenging. Even when these requirements are checked off as well as can realistically be expected, the problem of off-centre tracking often still remains.
When faced with an application where conventional methods of belt training are not working, consider the solution that comes from a new point of view. Instead of fighting belt misalignment with repeated attempts at belt training, simply keep your belts ON-Track® with Richwood’s proven performance.
