Incline conveyor is also namely climbing belt conveyor. It is a common material handling equipment. The inclined belt conveyor is applicable in the case of high and low transportation. It can complete continuous conveying. Cleated belt conveyor transports materials from a lower position to a higher position. Climbing conveyor can be not only incline, but also vertical conveyor elevator.

As incline conveyor system manufacturer, we can customize many lift conveyors. For example, it can be small / mini, portable, Z type /shaped, sanitary, easy-to-clean, with hopper, modular, bucket and cleat belt conveyor, etc. It has wide applications in food, such as grain, peanut, coffee beans, frozen food, flour, biscuits, snacks, etc.
Application of Inclined Belt Conveyor
1. Z conveyor is a general-purpose continuous conveying equipment for bulk materials. It often uses incline belts with cleat and sidewall. Therefore, it is especially suitable for large inclination and vertical 90° transportation. In addition to purely conveying materials, it can also be matched with the production processes of various industries. Thereby it will form an assembly production line.

2. We usually use the cleat belt conveyor to transport products for packaging. For example, z type incline conveyor is often used together with bucket elevators and vertical packaging machines. In addition, the climbing conveyor has also wide applicatoin in injection molding industry.

3. Inclined belt conveyor is popular in loading and unloading. It can not only convey upwards, but also transport goods downwards. For example, we usually use it to transport ore, coal, sand, etc. And the belt material is rubber. In addition, portable conveyor incline usually acts as truck loading belt conveyor. It is very convenient to use in the warehouse. For instance, It can load & unload cement. So it saves labor and cost. Moreover, we usually use the incline conveyor to transport grain in silo.

4. In the logistics warehouse, we need to transport all kinds of express parcels. The daily turnover of parcels is very large. It usually uses the heavy duty inclined conveyor. Moreover, in this application, the inclination angle of the conveyor is often not large. It usually uses anti-slip belt with texture.

5. Additionally, climbing belt conveyor has also wide uses in the vegetable and fruit production line. Of course, it often uses the cleated belt conveyor. For instance, in vegetable cleaning equipments, we often use modular belt climbing conveyor or stainless steel slat incline conveyor.
The Feature of Incline Conveyor
1. Climbing conveyor can transport bulk materials at a large inclination angle. So it can save a lot of factory area. The maximum angle can reach 90°. For example, one person wants to lift rice to the top of a 20m high silo. If use cleated belt conveyor at an inclination angle of 45°, the belt length is 28.3m (horizontal conveyor length 20m). If use a vertical conveyor, the horizontal length can be controlled within 6m.

2. Simple structure. Besides, the operation is stable, reliable, and low noise. Its structure is similar to flat belt conveyor. In addition, the inclined belt conveyor can have a great load-bearing and conveying capacity. For example, the conveying capacity of some mine climbing cleated belt conveyor can reach hundreds of m³/h.
Inclined Conveyor Belt Types
First of all, there are many types of climbing conveyors. We can classify it from the type of belt and the shape of the conveyor.

1. Incline Belt Types

The incline conveyor belt has several types, such as anti-slip textured belt, cleat belt, cleated belt with sidewall.

(1) Anti-slip conveyor belt with texture
Generally, for slopes with an angle less than 25°, we use anti-skid belts. Ordinary conveyor belts have insufficient friction. So the products are easy to slip off. Thus, it’s neccessory to use textured belt. Of course, there are many kinds of belt textures for choice, such as rough top belt and herringbone belt.
(2) Cleated conveyor belt
If the angle exceeds 25 degrees, it is best to use cleated belt conveyor. The cleat can prevent the material from slipping off. Of course, the height and spacing of the cleats mainly base on the product size and the conveying volume.

What is a cleated conveyor belt? The baffle plate is welded to the base surface of the belt by high-frequency machine. So the belt cleat is firm. There are two types of cleats: straight and curved. The conveying capacity of the latter is greater than that of the former. In addition, the cleat height has a variety of specifications.

The cleat conveyor belt has a wide range of applications. For example, the grain industry transports bulk materials and lifts goods. In addition to climbing transportation, it is also used for interval transportation.
(3) Cleat conveyor belt with sidewall
The incline cleat belt conveyor with side wall can transport various bulk materials at any angle from 0 to 90 degrees. The sidewall is S-shape corrugate. It is made of PVC, PU, rubber and other thermoplastic elastomers welded by high frequency. So it has greater lateral rigidity and longitudinal flexibility.

This kind of cleated belt plays the role of bearing and traction in the conveyor equipment. Moreover, because of conveyor belt, cleat and sidewall, it can form a container for conveying materials. The container is similar to a box. So it can achieve large inclination transportation. The side wall cleated conveyor belt can transport various bulk materials, such as food, fertilizer, grain in the horizontal, inclined, vertical, and variable-angle directions.
2. The shape types of incline conveyor
According to the application and the conveying route, it can customize the climbing coneyors with various shapes and sizes.
(1) small / mini incline conveyor

These small inclined belt conveyors are mainly used for light load transportation. The belt can be PVC, food grade PU belt, or modular belt. The incline elevator can lift scattered small objects. And it can set horizontal and the inclined section according to the actual situation. Mini inclined belt conveyor is often used in conjunction with other conveyor equipments or material handling equipments. At the same time, it often acts as a transitional conveying line.

For example, the finished product conveyor is mainly used to accept the finished products packaged by the packaging machine. It transport products to the testing equipment or packaging platform after packaging. It is a cleated belt conveyor. The cleat belt can ensure the safe & stable transportation.
(2) Z type conveyor

Z shaped conveyor is a kind of inclined belt conveyor. The Z conveyor system mainly composes of three parts: the lower horizontal section, the climbing section, and the upper horizontal section. The shape looks like the letter Z. So it is called z incline conveyor.

Z style conveyor is often the cleated belt conveyor with sidewall. Of course, z elevator conveyor can also uses the rough top belt. The materials can be smoothly transitioned from horizontal to inclined or vertical. Due to the cleat and sidewall, even if the inclination angle of the conveyor is greater than 30°, it will not cause the material to slide down or spill. The conveying angle is large. Besides z incline conveyor can also convey materials at a vertical angle. It has many advantages, such as large transportation capacity, high transportation efficiency, stable operation and high reliability. At the same time, this inclined belt conveyor has the characteristics of vertical conveying of bucket elevator.
(3) Incline conveyor with hopper

Compared with the general inclined belt conveyor, it has an extra hopper feeding part. It often acts as a feeder. It is usually the supporting equipment of packaging equipments and other automation equipments. This climbing cleated belt conveyor is very suitable for conveying loose / bulk materials, such as grain, beans, ore, sand, fertilizer, feed, etc. Due to the hopper, it can prevent the materials from falling. At the same time, it can better play the role of transport transition.
(4) Inclined bucket conveyor

This is sanitary inclined belt conveyor. Both frame and buckets are food grade SS304 stainless steel material. Different from other incline conveyors, the buckets are fixed on the belt. It uses the conveyor belt to drive the buckets to lift the material. This incline feed conveyor is suitable for feeding granular, strip, block and irregular materials. It is often combined with a computer combination weigher and a packaging machine to form a quantitative automatic packaging system. It has wide application in the food packaging industry. At the same time, through the control circuit and the material level control, it can realize the automatic function of feeding and stopping.

Due to the stainless steel material, this conveyor incline is easy to clean. Moreover, it is easy to maintain and has a long life. In addition to conveying ordinary particles and blocks, it can also convey high-temperature materials. Of course, you can also customize the food grade ABS plastic buckets.
(5) Easy-to-clean inclined belt conveyor

Firstly, these two kinds of cleated belt conveyor uses an easy-to-clean belt. It is usually the PU cleat belt. What is a easy-to-clean belt? Food grade easy-to-clean belts are co-extruded with high-performance polyurethane and aramid fiber materials. The aramid fiber is completely covered inside the PU material. Aramid fibers are parallel and evenly distributed. So there will be no burrs.

What’s the advantages of incline conveyor with easy-to-clean belt? During the process of meat cutting and seafood processing, we have to clean the belt frequently. Compared with the traditional modular belt conveyor, its water saving rate is as high as 57%. It can adapt to various harsh environments, such as high oil, high salt, high humidity, high temperature (90°C) and low temperature (-40°C).
(6) Incline Conveyor for Loading / Unloading

We mainly produce two kinds of inclined belt conveyor for loading unloading. Both of them can be suitable not only for loading, but also for unloading.

On the left is a typical truck loading conveyor. It can transport goods in both directions. Besides, it is also a z conveyor design. It uses hydraulic lifting to adjust the height. The maximum tilt angle is 45°. At the same time, during the lifting process, its front end always remains horizontal. It uses non-slip belt. And the load capacity is strong. Equipped with casters, so it is easy to move. In addition, it can add a flexible roller conveyor at the front end of the incline conveyor. In this way, the front end can be extended toward the interior of the vehicle compartment. Then, the goods can be placed directly inside the truck. This saves transportation time and labor costs. This z lift conveyor has wide application in express logistics, warehouses, docks, factories, etc.

On the right is the foldable and portable inclined belt conveyor. This conveyor has a similar use to the former. The biggest feature is that it can be folded. So you can put it on the truck. Then you can use it anytime and anywhere. Additionally, it can add side guards and hopper. So it can acts as incline feed & grain conveyor. It’s multifunctional. Moreover, when you are not using it, you can fold it up. No need to take up space.
Troubleshooting of Climbing Cleated Belt Conveyor
The sidewall cleated conveyor belt has many advantages. But it also will be damaged. After all, all conveyor belts are consumables. So how to solve the problem when the incline cleat belt fails? Let’s take a look at the solutions.
1. The edge of the base belt of the sidewall cleated conveyor belt is damaged
If it is only a slight damage, it is necessary to observe whether the inclined cleat belt has deviations during operation. Whether it is damaged by external force. If the empty edge of belt is torn, it is necessary to observe whether it uses the double-type press-belt roller. In principle, if the belt width is greater than 500mm, not to use single-type rollers. The main function of the press-belt roller is to prevent the inclined conveyor belt from rising in the groove section.

When the base belt is wide, if use a single-type roller, then the stress points will focus on the empty side. At this time, if the incline conveyor belt thickness is too thin, it will be prone to tear and damage. However, if you use a double type one, the inner roller just presses on the top of the group edge during operation. Then it will make the force point uniform. So there will be no tearing of the empty edge position.
2. The cleat and sidewall of incline conveyor are torn off
Observe whether the cleated conveyor belt runs smoothly. Whether the conveyor belt runs off. Whether it matches the effective belt width and pressure pulley. At the same time, check whether the roller diameter meets the technical parameters. During the return conveying, if the cleat is wavy, it is easy to damage. If the cleat is hard, it will easily break from the bottom.
3. The base belt of the sidewall cleated conveyor belt breaks at the bottom
It should observe whether the roller diameter is small. If so, the bending stress of the incline conveyor belt is too large. Thus it is easy to cause breakage. At the same time, check if there are any obvious marks on the base of the cleat. If it is too obvious, it means that the pressure is too high during the secondary vulcanization. So it cause this position damage. Or there is no cleaning device on the conveyor incline. Scratch hard objects and cause cross-cutting.
4. Material leakage of incline conveyor belt with sidewall
Add sidewall to the cleated belt conveyor. The main purpose is to ensure that the material will not fall down during conveying the product. However, some customers experienced material leakage from the sidewall inclined conveyor belt. What causes this?

(1) The height of the two sides of the incline conveyor belt changes during operation. High on one side and low on the other. Therefore, the material run off from the lower side. At this time, we have to adjust the belt deviation.

(2) Although there is no belt deviation, there is still material spilling. At this time, you should consider whether the surface of the inclined conveyor belt is damaged. The material fell out of the gap. For incline belts that are not severely damaged, we can carry out maintenance and repair. Otherwise, it needs replace a new one.

(3) The material is higher than the cleat and sidewall. Then when the incline conveyor belt is running at a high speed, the material will also fall down due to inertia.

In order to increase the service life of the inclined belt conveyor with sidewall, pay attention to the following items during use:

(1) Avoid the rollers being covered by materials, so as not to cause rotation failure. Prevent leakage of material from getting stuck between the roller and the incline belt. At the same time, pay attention to the lubrication of the movable part of the inclined belt conveyor. But the conveyor belt must not be oily;

(2) Prevent the inclilne conveyor from starting with load;
(3) If the conveyor belt deviates, it should take measures to correct it in time;

(4) When the incline belt damages, repair it in time to avoid expansion;

(5) Prevent the conveyor belt from being blocked by the frame. Prevent bumps and tears.