A global leader in bulk material-handling solutions offers a family of responsive conveyor belt tracking systems that mitigate misalignment, rather than correcting it after the fact, even on reversing belts, to promote conveyor efficiency and safety.
A mistracking belt can contact the mainframe, seriously damaging both the belt and the structure, resulting in excessive spillage and even creating a potential fire hazard.
Utilising innovative multiple-pivot, torque-multiplying technology, the Martin® Tracker™ detects slight misalignments initiated by unbalanced loads and fouled rollers, using the force of the belt to immediately adjust its position and realign the path. The trackers minimise risk and material loss, decreasing downtime and operating costs by reducing clean-up and equipment damage.
Rollers attached to the end of a sensing arm assembly ride both sides of the belt edge, detecting even slight variations in the belt path. Employing the force of the wandering belt, the arms automatically position a steering idler in the opposite direction of the misalignment. Transferring the motion to the steering idler through a unique parallel linkage requires less force to initiate the correction, so fine-tuning of the path can be continuous, active and precise.
According to Martin Engineering product engineer Dan Marshall: "The biggest issue from a mistracking belt is spillage.
"If the belt is out of place, it’s not handling the load properly, and that will cause material to leave the belt. The build-up can be extremely rapid, especially from a high-speed conveyor, which drives up expenses due to wasted material and added clean-up. It also introduces the inherent risk which is always present when people are working around a moving conveyor."
