An Introduction to Chip Conveyors

Posted on Apr 16, 2021

Chip Conveyors

Various chip conveyors are widely used for removing and transferring scraps, chips, and unwanted parts from metalworking machinery. They are commonly applied to stamping machines, automate existing systems, stacking systems, coolant systems, and more. There are different kinds of chip conveyors in the market to provide the solution for ferrous and non-ferrous metal chips, light to heavy chip loads, stingy chips or broken chips, as well as mixed chip loads.

What Are Chip Conveyors?

Chip conveyors are steel conveyor belts that are designed for transporting chips from the end of the machining center or other sorts of machines to another place. Chip removal equipment is rapidly becoming popular today. In virtually all the fields, conveyor systems are extremely important to efficiently and precisely moving the products, materials, tools, and unwanted items from one point to another. In industrial production, chip conveyors are becoming a necessity to prevent poor finishes, excessive tool wear, and tool breakage. Typically, the chip conveyors move the items horizontally, on an incline, or in a dogleg form.

Manufacturers of chip conveyors provide a wide variety of high-quality chip conveyors for chip and scrap removal applications for various machine tools. The machines the chip conveyors can match with include small lathes, machining centers, gantry milling machines and accommodate various coolant systems, conveying different types of metal chips hundreds of feet from the machines to central collecting facilities.
 

Why Use Chip Conveyors?

Various chip conveyors are widely used for removing and transferring scraps, chips, and unwanted parts from metalworking machinery. They are commonly applied to stamping machines, automate existing systems, stacking systems, coolant systems, and more. There are different kinds of chip conveyors in the market to provide the solution for ferrous and non-ferrous metal chips, light to heavy chip loads, stingy chips or broken chips, as well as mixed chip loads. Non-ferrous metals have no iron content, which includes tin-based alloys, copper alloys, lead alloys, zinc, aluminum, and more. On the other hand, ferrous metals which contain iron are more vulnerable to rust. Non-ferrous metals have better malleability and ideal resistance to corrosion and moisture.

The chip conveyor system can be installed and set up simply almost anywhere you want as long as you have adequate space for the equipment. Therefore, chip conveyors are easily found indoors across the industries. The safety the chip removal equipment can provide is a strong benefit for numerous applications. Since there is less human handling process, the device offers efficient, less risky operations.
 

:: Read More: What Is a Magnetic Chip Conveyor?

Different Types of Chip Conveyors

Using a reliable chip conveyor can optimize the performance of modern machining centers. The solutions of chip removal can be divided into hinge-belt type, scraper type, and magnetic styles. Depending on the desired layout, the amount as well as the type of the chips, and the machine type, the user can select a suitable style to meet the specifications.
 

Hinge-belt Conveyor 

The hinge-belt chip conveyors, which is also known as hinge conveyors, are the most common form of chip removing device, providing an effective way of managing heavy loads of chips, bushy and stringy chips, broken chips, and mixed chip loads. Chips falling from the automatic machines land on the belt, subsequently, the chips, which are mostly aluminum, brass, or steel chips, will be transported away to the destination. The belt designs come in plain, flat, U-shape, dimpled, and perforated forms and the advanced cleats style that can keep the chips from nesting and jams. 

Hinge-belt chip conveyors are popular for the capability for handling troublesome waste and can be integrated with coolant tanks and coolant filtration. However, the hinge-belt type is less suitable for conveying swarf, fines, and cast iron chips.
 

Scraper Chip Conveyor

For this conveyor, the belt moves in reverse, dragging the debris up the incline to the end. Different from the hinge-belt type, the scraper chip conveyors are better suited for removing cast iron, bronze, and brass chips when the machining process creates tiny chips that tend to nest together. The metal chips directly fall to the conveyor's bottom, the scrapers will force and pull the debris to the end to discharge them from the conveyor. The paddles of the scrapper chip conveyor can be customized with different brushes and wipers, and the paddles also come in the standard angle form and a customs form. 

Scraper chip conveyor is available for light to heavy loads, fines, small and broken chips as well as swarf. On top of that, the conveyor can also be used for floating chips in coolant systems. However, this type of chip conveyor system is not ideal for mixed chip loads, stringy chips, and bushy applications. Another limitation lies in the inlet height, which should be higher than about 12 cm, typically.
 

Magnetic Chip Conveyors

Magnetic chip conveyors are mostly used for conveying ferrous metals with smaller chips. The steel conveyors come in a magnetic slider bed or a magnetic pulley style. The ferrous material falls on the stainless steel surface of the magnetic chip conveyors, transported by powerful magnets working underneath. The conveyor can convey the chips vertically, upside down as well as around corners. The magnets used in a magnetic belt conveyor are the permanent ceramic magnets that are placed within the slider bed. When the chips reach the discharge end, the magnets release the materials, the ferrous materials will fall freely to the collector. Depending on the applications and the chip sizes, the strength, as well as the size of the magnetic field of the magnetic chip conveyor, can be customized. A magnetic chip conveyor belt system is an ideal choice to control the positioning and removal of ferrous metal chips. 

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