High Temperature Conveyors from mk North America
The majority of industrial conveyor applications occur in environments that are more or less room temperature. Shipping, crating, inspection, and others are all applications for which no special consideration of temperature is required.
For many others, however, extreme low temperatures or high temperatures are the norm, and specialty conveyor systems are needed to accommodate them. This post will focus on the latter: conveyors designed for high heat environments, and the solutions offered by mk North America.
Common Applications Requiring High Temperature Conveyor Systems
There are a number of high temperature industrial applications that require specialty conveyor systems able to withstand extreme heat. Some of the most common include the following.
- Food Processing, Baking, & Cooking: Industrial-scale cooking, baking, and food processing are often done in large ovens with specialty conveyor systems. mk offers food processing conveyors for oven intake and other applications. For industrial baking, mk also has several standard systems BISSC-certified systems in the CleanMove line of conveyors.
- Heat Sealing: In product packaging, high heat is often used to seal thermoplastic products and packages shut. Packaging conveyor systems from mk can be customized to accommodate high temperatures used in heat sealing.
- Solar Panel Manufacturing: Extreme heat is sometimes required in certain stages of the solar panel manufacturing process. Solar panel manufacturing conveyors from mk provide necessary thermal resistance in addition to the precision and sanitation the industry demands.
High Temperature Conveyor Options from mk North America
mk North America offers a number of specialty belt conveyors capable of withstanding high temperatures in applications like the ones above thanks to their highly modular, customizable design.
Depending on the specific application and temperatures involved, either aluminum or steel-framed conveyor systems might be recommended by mk’s engineering team. While either can be utilized for certain high temperature applications (depending on the specific heat involved), stainless steel conveyors like mk’s CleanMove systems are particularly useful for food processing thanks to their high sanitary rating.
Custom belting options for high temperature environments include the following:
- Steel Mesh Belting: Steel conveyor belts are woven from resilient stainless steel mesh, making them highly heat resistant as well as ideal for sharp and other aggressive materials.
- Fiberglass belting: Fiberglass conveyor belts also offer high heat resistance with a lighter weight and greater flexibility than steel mesh.
- Modular Plastic Belting: Specialty modular plastic belts can be designed to withstand high temperature conveyance, many of which are also impact resistant and food safe.
- Steel Chain: mk’s table top chain conveyors are available with options for steel chain configuration, which can naturally withstand relatively high temperatures.
Extremely high temperatures may present additional considerations when designing and manufacturing conveyors. For instance, standard UHMW-PE wear strip may need to be changed to a high-temp plastic like Teflon. Custom motors and motor sealing may also be required for certain temperatures.