Everyone loves to look at pictures of cute puppies/dogs, I know I do. I mean, come on now... look at that face. This is my Sheepadoodle, Charlee. Both my husband and I think she is just the cutest. 

Now, how about these pictures?! I'm pretty sure that most plant managers or maintenance supervisors seeing these are cringing and don't think they are cute nor do they even want to look at them (especially if they see this daily in real life). 

Solution

There is a very simple, efficient, and cost-effective way to prevent this - a belt cleaner. For those of you who aren't familiar with a belt cleaner... ⇓

A belt cleaner scrapes off material that sticks to the conveyor belt and gets carried around the return rollers, dropping off every time the conveyor belt runs over a return roller. That is why piles begin to develop These piles are expensive and dangerous. They require manual cleanup which adds to maintenance expenses but most of all, puts workers in danger zones in close proximity to the conveyor belt. 

To learn more and hear more from Jerad, check out the webinar link below. 

The average cost for a belt cleaner on a 36-inch belt is approximately $1500.

Let's Calculate That

For this exercise, let’s use one conveyor + the manpower to clean up carryback for one day:

 4 hours x $25 = $100 per day

Most likely, this carryback is occurring on a daily basis so you now need to figure in the plant operating 5 days a week. 

 $100 x 5 days = $500 per week

There are 52 weeks in 1 year so...

$500 x 52 = $26,000

That is $26,000 spent in one year on manual cleanup of carryback. 

Based on this quick estimate, if you purchase just one belt cleaner for $1500 and you stop having to spend time cleaning just that one area everyday...simple math shows a savings of $24,500. 

Just think of the potential savings if you have more than one area with that same scenario. Not only the monetary savings but the freed up manpower to help with other pressing or unexpected maintenance issues.

In summary, which picture would you rather look at?

Drop us a line in the comments section and let us know!

I have also included a link below to a helpful belt cleaner resource.