Sparks Belting Celebrates 75 Years of Service and Expanded Operations

Conveyer solutions manufacturer relocates to larger plant that will pave the way for increased production during its milestone year

Coping With Continuous Wash Down

A large food manufacturing company has been using a newly installed conveyor belt for pig intestines at its processing facility. The new belt includes key features, specifically the new system is equipped with synchronous drum motors. Regardless of the repetitive daily pressure cleaning with hot water, the conveyor has been running consistently for more than a year without downtime or maintenance.

Small Things Make a Big Impact

As the National Sales Manager of Sparks Belting, I can attest that Sparks Belting is committed to providing the highest form of a total customer experience within our industry. As our industry grows and evolves, suppliers within our industries will be facing new challenges and opportunities to improve cost savings, production output, and serviceability.

Case Study: How a Rubber Conveyor Belt Increased Belt Life Reducing Maintenance Costs and Downtime

A tire retread facility in Covington, Georgia reached out to Sparks Belting to help solve a slipping issue with their conveyor belts. The company is a leader in the tire retread industry with millions of tires on the road across North America.

How Sparks Belting's Commitment to Customers Provided Endless Value to Tire Manufacturer

An international automobile tire manufacturer in the southern USA came to Sparks Belting to provide their conveyor belting for a new plant they were opening. Committed to quality and innovative technology, this tire manufacturer is one of the largest in the world.

How To Square Belt Ends Using the Center Line Method

Accurate squaring of the belt ends prior to lacing is essential to correct belt tracking and helps distribute stress evenly throughout the joint.

Measuring the Durometer (Hardness) of a Conveyor Belt

Durometer is one of several measures of the hardness of a material. It can be identified as a material’s resistance to a permanent indentation or it can be identified as a material’s resistance to penetration of a sharp object.

What Are Plies and Ply Adhesion on a Conveyor Belt?

Some conveyor belting is manufactured with one ply of fabric. This fabric layer can be coated with rubber, polymer, or elastomer. Yet, most conveyor belting is manufactured using two or more plies of fabric that are adhered to each other by using inner layers of rubber, polymer, or elastomer.

Static Electricity in Conveyor Belts

Static electricity is defined as electrical charge at rest. It can be caused by the triboelectric effect and can be accumulated by inductive and conductive charging.

Understanding Conveyor Belt Calculations

Understanding a basic conveyor belt calculation will ensure your conveyor design is accurate and is not putting too many demands on your system.

The Ultimate Checklist: Common Causes of Conveyor Belt Tracking Issues

Aligning and controlling a belt so it maintains its desired path is often difficult to do. Many factors influence the belt's ability to track correctly.

Determining the True Cost of a Conveyor Belt

Collecting and earning documented cost savings from vendors is a reality in today’s competitive manufacturing environment. Buyers are often faced with the difficult task of saving a fixed percentage on their MRO spend year on year. Belting is an ideal product to save money on due to the wide variety of materials available, specialty fabrications, and how it interacts with your product and conveyors. Sparks is an industry-leading expert in providing cost savings to a wide variety of industries.

Selecting the Proper Conveyor Belt for Your Conveyor

There is a science behind selecting the correct conveyor belt for your conveyors. Conveyor belt specification is both a process of elimination and, at the same time, honing in on the critical and fixed variables associated with your conveyor. This guide will steer you on the right path to selecting a better conveyor belt for your conveyor.

How to Select the Proper Belt Fasteners and Reduce Failures

Conveyor belt fasteners are manufactured in two styles—hinged and solid plate. Hinged belt fasteners are applied as individual segments to a belt end and then connected with a hinge pin. Solid plate fasteners span opposing belt ends that have been butted together, forming a tight, sift-free splice.

Remember CITA When Tracking Your Conveyor Belt

Training a conveyor belt to run centered on your conveyor requires patience and a strong understanding of how conveyors work. Following this 4-step conveyor belt tracking process will help reduce downtime, extend your belt life, and save money.

Conveyor Belt Tensioning 101

Properly tensioning a conveyor belt is a critical step in tracking conveyor belts. Getting the correct amount of tension reduces splice failures, excessive stretch, and wear on the side of your frame. Luckily, there is a simple procedure to achieve the proper tension on a belt.

5 Considerations Before Making a Conveyor Belt Repair

Maintenance personnel and managers need to be in agreement as they consider various factors impacting the timing and necessity of conveyor belt repair.

How to Extend the Life of Your Automotive Stamping Conveyor Belts

Auto stamping conveyors can be an extremely challenging environment for conveyor belts, making it difficult to keep belts functioning properly and productively.

Reduce Downtime with Better Belt Fasteners

Increased demands for less downtime put maintenance managers in a catch-22. Although maintenance teams are charged with finding new and better products for their plant, sometimes the risks don’t outweigh the potential rewards. Since they have a history of how their existing belts perform, managers can develop a plan to change them without disrupting production.

Truly Endless Woven Conveyor Belts for Oven Take Conveyors

Oven take-off conveyor belts are one of the most demanding applications in the cookie and cracker industry. When these belts fail, it shuts down the entire production line and costs a tremendous amount of money. Luckily there is a solution that can lead to substantial cost savings!

How to Double the Life of an Automotive Stamping Conveyor Belt

Automotive stamping conveyors are some of the most demanding and abrasive conveyor belt applications in the industrial world. Belts must withstand sharp edges, oils, slicing, and cutting. It's common for parts to get caught between pulleys or stacking tables and create major damage as a result. Safety and ergonomic conditions also factor into the decision to create transfer points with an absolute minimum spacing.

Important Questions to Ask Before Making a Conveyor Belt Repair

Managers and maintenance personnel need to be on the same page as they weigh the various factors when considering conveyor belt repair.

Conveyor Belt Tracking Tips

A common challenge for plant maintenance is controlling and aligning a belt so it maintains its desired path. Many factors influence a belt's ability to track correctly.

How to Select the Right Food Grade Conveyor Belt for Confections

Getting the right food grade conveyor belt for the right application is critical to producing high quality products.The confectionery industry requires the handling of various chocolates, sweets, candies and chewing gum, each requiring a conveyor belt with the right properties to handle their application.

4 Conveyor Belt Repair Practices to Get You Back Up and Running

Conveyor belts generally break in the middle of demanding production runs when downtime simply isn’t an option. Ordering a new replacement belt at this point is going to cost hours-if not days of additional downtime before you can begin to install it on your conveyor. Luckily, there are a few proven conveyor belt repair practices that will get you up and running faster.

Replacement Conveyor Belts Checklist

5 factors to consider when selecting a replacement conveyor belt.

A Faster and Easier Way to Repair a Broken Timing Belt

More and more, machine designers are using endless urethane timing belts in place of flat belts in their equipment design for the accurate movement of product. But, changing timing belts on many machines can be very time-consuming. Quite often, the design of these machines does not allow for the replacement of endless belts without significant disassembly of the machinery, causing considerable downtime and lost production.

Tag: conveyor belt