You can prolong the service life of your conveyor system by installing scrapers to clean the conveyor belt. This article discusses some of the common types of scrapers that you can consider for your application.
Front Scrapers
Front scrapers are installed on the upper part of the point at which the belt drops from the conveyor drum. The segments/wipers of this scraper are pressed onto the belt so that they remove any material residues from the belt as it makes its way to the bottom of the drum. Front scrapers are suitable for conveyor belts that can reverse their direction of movement.
Blade Scrapers
Another kind of scraper that you can consider installing on your conveyor system is the blade scraper. The blade scraper is installed so that its wipers remove debris just before the belt drops off at the drum. This is unlike the front scraper that targets the debris which remains on the belt as the belt is reaching the bottom of the drop drum. Blade scrapers work while the belt is just approaching the drop drum. The wipers on this type of scraper are usually held in place by stainless steel or carbide holders. One major shortcoming of this type of scraper is that it is not suitable for conveyor systems that can reverse their direction of movement. This is because the holders of the wipers are held rigidly in place. Consequently, any reversal in the direction of movement will damage the scraper.
Traverse Scrapers
Another type of scraper (the traverse scraper) targets the debris that sticks onto the conveyor belt as it is moving underneath the drop drum. This debris normally comes from the materials that dropped to the floor as the belt was moving on the upper side of the conveyor system. That explains why debris can still be found on the belt even if other scrapers exist on the upper side of the conveyor belt. The traverse scraper protects the different components of the conveyor system, such as the return drum and belt cover, from being damaged by the debris that is stuck onto them as the belt squeezes this debris onto the drum on the belt's way up.
As you can see, each of the conveyor belt scrapers serves a different role. It may therefore not be sufficient for you to install only one type of scraper on your conveyor system. Assess your application and identify which other type of scraper would be helpful in safeguarding your materials handling system from the risks associated with debris.
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