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Conveyor chain helps with huge wire mesh belt

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Oct 8, 2001

Tsubaki UK's specialist hollow pin conveyor chain has enabled Davies Woven Wire (DWW), one of the UK's leading suppliers of woven wire mesh belting, to create a large one-off stainless steel conveyor

Tsubaki UK's specialist hollow pin conveyor chain has enabled Davies Woven Wire (DWW), one of the UK's leading suppliers of woven wire mesh belting, to create a large one-off stainless steel conveyor.

By locating stainless steel support bars through the drive chain itself, DWW has been able to construct the conveyor belt measuring over 1.5m wide and 22m long and avoid the inherent problem of retaining belt integrity.

Made from 304 grade stainless steel wire, the conveyor belt is woven to one of a series of standard patterns allowing both flexibility and support.

The fine mesh specified by the customer has a dense weave pattern of 72 pitches per foot, which, without strengthening rods would not have provided adequate support across its width.

The solution was provided by 1/2" pitch Tsubaki C2080HP-R conveyor chain.

It has large 8mm diameter hollow bearing pins allowing the stainless steel rods to be fed directly through the wire mesh and into the chain.

The rods are turned down at the end providing a shoulder to locate the chain and are retained by a washer and a weld at the tip.

Tsubaki's HPR Conveyor chain also has oversized rollers, allowing the use of support rails to provide transverse support for the products being conveyed and preventing any longitudinal sag.

It is more usual for mesh belts to be friction driven by rollers at either end, but in this case, the 22-metre length of the belt meant that chain and sprockets were needed.

The combination ensures that tension is maintained in the belt, without pulling the mesh structure out of shape.

Preventing elongation by using the chain also ensures that products are precisely indexed through the process.

By using a stainless mesh belt, food products can be hygienically and safely heated up to high temperatures in an oven, deep-fried, frozen or garnished without leaving the conveyor surface.

The example in question has been built for export to Europe and is being used to transport food items through a large-scale automated preparation process.

Peter Davies, the MD of Davies Woven Wire commented; "The quality of Tsubaki products is excellent, one of few brands that are specified by my customers, and in this instance, the Tsubaki HPR product fitted our requirements exactly.

Another reason for choosing Tsubaki is that they are an extremely easy company to do business with.

The technical support they provide is very reliable, in fact, I have never asked them a question they did not know the answer to.

Neither can I recall a piece of Tsubaki chain ever being returned, and I have been a customer for over ten years".

His company, founded in 1998 has grown rapidly to be one of the largest manufactures of woven wire belting in the UK.