Fenner develops new conveyor belt for high heat applications

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – Fenner Dunlop Conveyor Belting has launched a new high temperature resistant conveyor belt that combines a single-ply fabric with a new ‘high performance rubber compound’ for extreme environments.

OptimaHeat Xtreme features “an amazingly tough patented super flexible single-ply fabric", Nova-Xtreme and a high-performance cover compound OptimaHeat, which protects the carcass under the extreme conditions, said Fenner in a statement.

Produced in-house at Fenner’s weaving facility in Pittsburgh, Nova-Xtreme is a single unit carcass specifically designed for higher heat applications.

The carcass is claimed to avoid the problem of delamination caused by impact, trough transitions and flexing around pulleys which is common in conventional multi-ply high heat resistant belts.

Furthermore, the single-ply carcass addresses the issue of heat aging to the skim compound between plies that cause the plies to separate.

Compared to conventional heat resistant multi-ply belting, the fabric is claimed to have “exceptional resistance” to ripping, tearing and impact.

Another advantage of the single–ply construction is splice strength and reliability.

Fenner said it had used a “finger splice joint”, enabling up to 90% of the belt’s tensile strength to be retained while a three-ply step splice can only achieve "a maximum efficiency of 67%."

Also developed in-house, Fenner’s OptimaHeat rubber compound has been engineered to withstand maximum continuous material temperatures as high as 400°F (204°C) and extreme peak temperatures as high as 750°F (400°C).

In addition to its resistance to the usual hardening and cracking, the rubber also features enhanced physical properties such as resistance to abrasive wear and “superior adhesion strength.”

In terms of use, Fenner said the belts can be employed in a wide range of applications, including conveying hot clinker from the kiln; calcined coke from the quenching process in a cement plant or hot casting sands at a steel production plant.