Production of conveyor belts for packaging machines with shrink film

The packaging industry is a sector in which the volumes of products managed and processed every day require inevitably high-efficiency automation, so the conveyor belts for the packaging machines are fundamental for the proper functioning of the automation, especially where the packaging is made with plastic shrink film.

Conveyor belts for packaging with shrink film

The essential characteristic of packaging with shrink film is the need to get the product across an alternated series of cycles at high and low temperatures so that the particular proprieties of the used plastic film work properly. This requires that the conveyor belt for a packaging machine is able to withstand without damage the temperature changes that inevitably will generate thermal expansion and contraction, and so has precise material and construction requirements.

The ideal materials for these conveyor belts are carbon steel and stainless steel (the latter on request can be accompanied by the certificate of conformity); in fact, these are alloys able to withstand without damage the level of temperature required by the processing of the shrink film of the packaging. As regards the type of construction, the fundamental need is to allow the passage of hot and cold air over the surface of the product, so that allows the correct retraction of the film; this is obtained with a wire mesh with a large opening, the dimensions of which are specially calibrated in order to allow the expansion and the contraction of the entire surface of the belt without damage.

In addition, in the cooling phase, it is possible, given that there are no problems of temperature, to implement the drag with a sprockets system, which reduces the maintenance costs without compromising the efficiency of the belt.