A Guide to Spiral Conveyor Systems
The automation of production processes, increase in profitability and saving of production space are the things that a spiral conveyor can do. The popularity of spiral conveyors are with food producers. Conveyor designs are constantly evolving. Before, the design of spiral conveyors was with drum drive but later on have been changed and evolved.
If you want to know the features of the spiral conveyor with external drives, then read on below.
Spiral conveyors with an external drive do not have a drum and so do not have restrictions. This allows for a wide range of configurations. Spiral conveyors with external drives can be round or oval shaped with the input and output sections placed in any height and in any part of the conveyor. Mounting it can be done around columns. This is suitable for any type of customer’s building, especially with complicated configurations.
You can create a multi-belt conveyor with spiral conveyors with an external drive. Its model features allow it to have multi-belts. So, in a single structure, you can have up to four independent spiral conveyor belts. Each belt can move on its own speed. with this varying speeds, different products will have different resting times.
Spiral conveyors apply modernized belt types. Their different parts are made of stainless steel. For small product handling, special plastic mesh is installed but can be changed to stainless steel mesh optimally depending on customers’ request. Drum systems have collapse risks but in spiral conveyors, with external drives, belts are securely held on guides so there are no risks due to side sliding elements.
There are rails mounted like beams to both external and internal support columns on a spiral conveyor with external drives. Fixing the belt securely on rails allow to have a wide range of belts.
Spiral conveyors with external drive in the absence of internal drum, have lesser weight. The requirements for the placement of equipment is lowered and has smaller inertia. It is easier and faster to heat or cool the conveyor and this allows the production to work more flexibly and at lower costs.
In an internal drum various contaminants are stored and it is is also the central drive unit. Since it is internal or inside the structure, accessing it is difficult and labor cost for cleaning is high. Spiral conveyors with external drives do not need to face this problem. Most structural elements have rounded shapes and always available for cleaning.
Because there are less mechanical parts to wear, repairs can be carried out simply and cost-effectively. Replacing a gear requires you to remove a few screws and replace the plastic side element on the belt and this does not take long to do.