The Importance Of Industrial and Manufacturing Industries

Vulcanizing Conveyor Belts Makes Them Harder

17 May 2022 by Todd Edwards

Conveyor belts are used in a whole lot of places. You see them when you go grocery shopping, but they are also used in places like quarries to transport rocks and aggregate from one place to another. Because conveyor belts are used in so many places and can take a lot of abuse, the rubber has to be treated so that it can stand up to all that abuse. The rubber has to go through a process called vulcanization. 

Vulcanization

This process was discovered by Charles Goodyear. He was trying to figure out a way to make rubber more durable. One of the things he did was to mix some sulfur with some rubber. While he was doing that, he accidentally dropped his mixture into a hot frying pan and discovered that heating the mixture made the rubber harder, which meant it was going to last longer. The vulcanization process originally just used sulfur and heat, but these days, a number of processes and additives are used to vulcanize natural and synthetic rubber. There are a lot of reasons, other than hardening the rubber to stand up to use and abuse, for using a vulcanization process for conveyor belts. 

Repairs

One reason to use a vulcanization process for conveyor belts is that it can help with repairs. There are several ways that a conveyor belt can be repaired. Most of them include cutting out the damaged area and then putting in a new section to replace it. That new piece can be spliced in by using mechanical fasteners that are placed on the ends of the repair and the original conveyor belt. Some of those mechanical fasteners look like zippers. This may be a good option for some places, but it isn't always the best solution.

Another repair option includes using industrial adhesives and adhering the replacement part that way. Once the adhesive is cured, then the repair is vulcanized. Vulcanizing the repaired area is going to make it stronger. A repair is often a weak point, so doing everything possible to make that repair stronger is going to help to eliminate that weak spot. 

Vulcanizing rubber, both natural and synthetic, makes the rubber harder and stronger. Your car tires are vulcanized, so are the conveyor belts that get used in your local supermarket or in the nearest quarry. Without conveyor belts, it would be a lot harder to get packages from various parts of facilities to another, groceries to the cashier, or rocks out of a quarry. 

Contact a company that conducts conveyor belt vulcanizing to learn more. 

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