Industry News

In industrial fields such as mining, ports, and building materials, belt conveyors are indispensable core equipment. With their continuous, efficient, stable, and reliable characteristics, they carry the key mission of material transportation. The hundred year evolution of belt conveyors, from the initial simple conveying devices to today's intelligent and green efficient equipment, has witnessed the iterative upgrading of industrial civilization and has become an important epitome of modern industrial production efficiency improvement.

The prototype of belt conveyors can be traced back to the mid-19th century, when the Industrial Revolution promoted the expansion of production scale. Traditional manual handling and rail car transportation had low efficiency, making it difficult to meet the demand for bulk material transportation. In 1868, the earliest belt conveyor system appeared in Britain, which used simple belts, rollers, and support structures, and relied on human or animal power to drive. It was mainly used for conveying small materials inside workshops. Although the structure was simple, it opened a new chapter in continuous conveying. In 1887, American inventor Thomas Robinson developed a more practical belt conveyor device, which was first applied to the transportation of mining materials, marking the official entry of belt conveyors into the industrial application field.

At the beginning of the 20th century, with breakthroughs in metal processing and electrical technology, belt conveyors experienced their first technological leap. The popularization of materials such as steel and rubber has greatly improved the wear resistance and tensile strength of belts, replacing early canvas and leather belts; The application of electric drive devices has replaced human and animal power, achieving a qualitative improvement in conveying efficiency. At this time, belt conveyors began to be widely used in heavy industries such as mining and metallurgy, becoming an important support for large-scale production. In 1913, Ford installed the first automobile assembly line, with belt conveyors as the core component, which promoted the popularization of the manufacturing assembly line model and further expanded its application scenarios.

From the mid-20th century to the 1980s, belt conveyors gradually moved towards standardized and large-scale production. Previously, conveyors were mostly specialized or non-standard equipment, making it difficult to mass produce and widely adapt; With the rapid development of industry, especially the rise of emerging industries such as automobiles and home appliances, standardized belt conveyors have gradually become popular, and structural designs have been continuously optimized. Adjustable angle and scalable models have emerged to adapt to different workshop and working conditions, becoming an indispensable universal equipment in industrial production.

Entering modern times, belt conveyors are accelerating their upgrade towards intelligence, greenness, and large-scale production. The integration of automation technology and computer control technology enables remote monitoring, precise speed regulation, and fault warning of conveyors, significantly reducing manual operation and maintenance costs; Under the promotion of environmental protection policies, enclosed belt conveyors and energy-saving models have become mainstream, effectively reducing dust leakage and noise pollution, in line with the "dual carbon" goals and environmental compliance requirements. Nowadays, China's belt conveyor industry has become increasingly mature, with an annual demand of over 500000 units. The products not only cover various industries domestically, but also export overseas, with an export value of 1.096 billion US dollars in 2023, becoming an important force in the global conveyor machinery field.