While a conveyor belt has become a common sight in contemporary industrial environments and production facilities, it was once an revolutionary creation that helped businesses in many ways. It provided a perfect answer to saving on manual work, time and costs and additionally, it made managing goods considerably less difficult. Though a conveyor system is now a piece of equipment that is usually ignored, they actually have a long and intriguing history.
Early Systems
The earlier types of conveyor belts were utilized as early as 1795, making use of a mechanical rather than an electrical system. These had been mainly employed within the agricultural industry as a way of moving huge amounts of grain and this saved farm owners and farm labours a lot of hard work. Another industry which was employing equivalent systems during this time was the mining industry that utilized them to transport coal. These types of early systems consisted of a wooden frame and belts made of fabric or rubber.
Improvements
In the nineteenth century onwards, conveyors had been used for material handling. The first conveyor roller was patented in 1908 by Hymie Goddard from the Logan Company, Indiana. Nonetheless, it was a further five years before the conveyor business started to prosper. The biggest change to mainstream industry arrived 1913 when Henry Ford launched the concept of the assembly line by having conveyor belts to increase production. By 1919, electric and free conveyor lines were becoming used in the automotive industry to manage mass production. Further progress was made in the 1920s when systems have been built longer. Synthetic materials began to be applied in the manufacturing of conveyor systems throughout World War II due to the deficiency of natural materials. Systems also improved dramatically during this period. In 1948, the first standards for conveyor systems were founded. From this time till the present day, power rollers have been perfected and this helped to cut the expenses of maintenance. www.conveyorrollers.co.uk is truly a website that has lots of up to date information about cheap belt conveyors.
Today
Nowadays, roller conveyors have a crucial role in numerous industrial sectors, such as food processing and production, agriculture, automotive, chemicals, pharmaceutical products, postal mail and production. In fact, there are very few industrial sectors which are not dependent on these systems at some stage during manufacturing, storage or handling.
Although it’s not a subject that many individuals contemplate about, conveyor belts play an important role in the general functioning of society right now. If you think about it, you’ll find a huge number of conveyors running simultaneously at any one time all around the world.