All of the sudden, summer is over...at least the activities are as the heat index is still well over 100°. My kids did all of the summer things, checked the boxes, and now it is time for school again. The school year looks like it will be a little more ‘normal’ with only a few changes from pre-2020 days. Parents are excited to ship them off and the kids are excited to get back with their peers. Seems like a win-win to me! In our household, routines started changing in the weeks leading up to the start of the school year in an attempt to get our kids back on track.
Although the changes can be subtle (earlier dinners, baths, and bedtime), they can have large impacts on students’ performance and experience in and outside of the classroom. The same is very true when it comes to tracking a conveyor belt.
Modern conveyor belts are complex systems made up of various forces influencing the performance of the conveyor. Often an afterthought is the conveyor's ability to run in a straight line (I thought of this while packing rulers in bookbags). Structural alignment to pulley straightness to loading-point design all have an effect on the conveyor's ability to run straight.
Properly aligned idlers, perfectly parallel stringers, and centered/even loading are the most common and achievable ways to ensure that a conveyor runs true - much like our kids getting to bed early will keep them healthy and sharp. Often this is not the case, and we try to help bolster our kids' immune systems with vitamins in an effort to keep them healthy. An active 
is an excellent "vitamin" for a conveyor system to help ensure it does not suffer a similar fate resulting in belt damage or spillage.
Belt Tracking Benefits
- Keep material in the main stream
- Eliminate dust
- Prevent belt edge damage
- Reduce spillage
- Minimize wear and tear on equipment/components
- Extend conveyor belt life
How Belt Tracking Works
Active belt tracking works by monitoring the position of the conveyor belt in real-time and introducing equal and opposite reactions to guide the conveyor back to a neutral or centered position. As opposed to "knocking idlers" or pivoting idlers that offer minor influence so long as the conveyor mistracks consistently in one direction, active trackers can make small or large adjustments in either direction.
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