At QC Conveyors, we are dedicated to optimizing your production facility and providing the best possible solutions for your conveyor needs. When it comes to your conveyor system, using genuine QC Conveyor parts is essential for ensuring the longevity and optimal performance of your system. 

Here are four reasons why using genuine QC Conveyor parts is important:

1. Properly sized belts ensure proper tension, which increases bearing life: QC Conveyors’ belts are designed to fit their conveyors precisely, ensuring that they are properly tensioned. This helps to increase the life of the bearings and other components in the conveyor system. QC Conveyors recommends .3% tension on belts. 
2. Belt materials have been extensively tested for compatibility: QC Conveyors’ belts are made from high-quality materials that have been extensively tested for compatibility with their conveyor systems. This ensures that the belts will perform optimally and last longer. If used outside of what is originally specified issues can occur. 
3. Bearings are engineered to fit our components properly for maximum longevity: QC Conveyors’ bearings are designed to fit their conveyor components perfectly, ensuring that they last as long as possible. This helps to reduce downtime and maintenance costs.
4. Motors that are properly sized to fit our conveyors and mounting packages: QC Conveyors’ motors are designed to be the perfect size for their conveyors and mounting packages. This ensures that they operate efficiently and effectively, reducing energy costs and increasing productivity.

QC Conveyors is a leading conveyor system manufacturer that has been providing customers with reliable, easy-to-use conveyor systems that meet their needs for years. Our products are backed by world-class service and support, ensuring that you get the quality and reliability you’re looking for. For more information on our products, please contact our aftermarket sales specialists at (513) 753-6000.

The post 4 Reasons it’s important to use genuine QC Conveyors replacement parts appeared first on QC Conveyors.

Robotiq recently highlighted this case study, where their robotic palletizing solution helped Chicago’s Napco Brands realize a 15% increase in throughput using Universal Robots UR10e collaborative robots. With the rise in robotic palletizing, we’ve seen an increase in demand for our AS40 Conveyors in these types of applications. Our URcap makes them very easy to integrate with the robots!

In the video, you’ll see AS40 Conveyors used to deliver filled cases to the cobot and to deliver coffee pods to the case packer.

The post AS40 Conveyor in Robotic Palletizing Application appeared first on QC Conveyors.

Think all belt conveyors are built the same? In this video, our Senior Marketing Manager, Chris Thompson, introduces four key factors that set QC Conveyors apart from the competition. These conveyors were built for ease of use and long-term reliability, with unique features like:

• single-piece frames
• crowned pulleys
• separated tension and tracking
• neutral tension marks

QC Conveyors is the only conveyor manufacturer to offer all four of these features across their full range of straight belt conveyors. And the best part? Most of these conveyors are available with leads times as short as five days!

The post What Sets QC Conveyors Apart? appeared first on QC Conveyors.

Director of Channel Management Stacey Stowell and Marketing Manager Chris Thompson participated in Automate Live hosted by Jake Hall and Chris Luecke. They spoke about the history of QC Conveyors and low profile conveyors, channel management strategy and the future of conveyors and automation.

Video Transcript

QC Conveyors showed their Flextrac Series modular plastic chain conveyors, curved belt conveyors, HydroClean Series sanitary conveyors and much more.

The post QC Conveyors Exhibits at Automate 2022 appeared first on QC Conveyors.

The post QC Conveyors Exhibits at Automate 2022 appeared first on QC Conveyors.

The seven belt materials include everything from multi-purpose belting to high and low friction varieties. Meet all seven below.

MAA

This off-white belt material has been our most popular for more than 30 years. It offers a low coefficient of friction that makes it a good candidate for many accumulation applications at a budget-friendly price point. We’re able to add cleats to this material in-house to meet customer specifications.

MAE

This bright white belt material is the standard for our Automation Series conveyors. It offers a slightly higher coefficient of friction compared to the MAA belt material, making it a good option for tackling light inclines. Cleats may also be added to this material.

AAC

This light gray fabric belt material offers a very low coefficient of friction that makes it ideal for accumulation applications (where the belt continues moving beneath stopped product). It’s also good for side-to-side transfers as it allows product to slide smoothly onto the conveyor.

FAA

A gray “snakeskin” belt material that offers a high coefficient of friction that allows it to tackle inclines and declines while maintaining control of the product. It’s capable of moving hot parts up to 212°.

FAF

This green rough-top belt material is one of our most popular. The deep ridge pattern offers a high coefficient of friction that gives it the ability to tackle the steepest inclines.

IAC/IAF

These two belt materials are incredibly similar. Both offer a high level of cut resistance that makes them ideal for parts with sharp edges. IAC is a urethane material, while IAF is PVC. We stock both versions because they offer resistance to different chemicals, especially cutting fluids. IAC is also capable of handling hot parts up to 248°.
You can learn more about these belt materials — and all our other belt materials — using our interactive belt explorer. Our Applications Engineering team can help determine the right belt for your application.

The post Meet Our 7 Quick Ship Belt Materials appeared first on QC Conveyors.

Jerry Ruschau nominated Sarah thanks to her “tenacity, eagerness to learn and ability to lead others.”

Sarah came to QC Conveyors after a career in early childhood education. Despite her lack of experience in industrial machinery, Jerry recognized that she could make an immediate impact on his team.

Sarah embraced her role as a liaison with our key accounts and quickly exceeded expectations. She has met aggressive metrics that directly contribute to our OEM division’s sales growth, while reducing warranty claims to less than 1%.

She saw a need for more detailed documentation for the custom products created by our OEM division and took the initiative to create mechanically accurate support documents. To do so, she has lead the project with not only our customers, but her peers and multiple department leaders at QC Conveyors.

Sarah will be recognized during the 2020 PMMI Annual Meeting, which will be a completely virtual event this year. She has also been invited to the 2021 Annual Meeting, where they will recognize both the 2020 and 2021 winners in person. She will also be recognized in the Winter issue of OEM Magazine.

This is the third year for the On the Rise Awards and QC Conveyors’ second recipient. Jenelle Gaskins was recognized in 2018.

Please join us in congratulating Sarah as a winner of PMMI’s On the Rise Awards!

The post Sarah Ziegler Named Recipient of PMMI On the Rise Award appeared first on QC Conveyors.

The key to meeting the five-day lead times of our Quick Shipping program is our in-house belt manufacturing team. Each year they manufacture thousands of belts with such incredible precision that no one remembers the last time one of their belts was rejected for a defect.

The belt materials are stocked in rolls that are pre-cut to the proper widths (we use standard widths across most of our products for this reason). We stock seven belt materials in each of our standard widths, allowing us to quickly splice and prepare belts for approximately 95% of conveyor orders. Special racks hold the rolls and are covered when not in use to prevent discoloration of the belt materials.

The material is fed through the finger punching machine, measured to the proper length and aligned to the table edge to ensure proper alignment in the machine. The triangular fingers are punched individually with a die that moves horizontally across the material.

Once the fingers are punched, they’re looped together around the platen of a heat press and carefully spliced with each other. This is the most critical step of the process since any misalignment can produce excessive belt camber. Given the tight tolerances necessary in low profile conveyors, too much camber could cause tracking problems and lead the belt to be damaged by making contact with bearing plates or the inner frame of the conveyor.

The heating element is lowered and tightened into place over the spliced fingers. Each belt material must be heated at a specific temperature for a specific time (the “recipe”) to ensure it’s properly fused. After the prescribed heating time, the heating element is flushed with cold water to rapidly cool the splice, which sets it permanently.

Completed belts are measured to ensure accuracy. A belt that’s too long or too short cannot be properly tensioned, which could lead to premature failure or belt slippage.

Cleats may be welded to the surface of the belt at this point using a high-frequency weld that’s incredibly strong. The cleat locations are carefully measured and marked, then the cleat is lowered into place using a special die (each cleat size has its own die) and welded into place.

V-guides are added to the belt in-house when necessary. The center-line of the carcass of the belt is roughed up using a drill press and a special epoxy is applied. The epoxy creates a strong bond when it and the rubber v-guide material are heated during the application process.

More information about the belts we stock is available in the belt data section of our website. Our guide on questions to ask when choosing a conveyor belt can help narrow down your choices or our Applications Engineering team can help you to determine exactly the right belt for your application.

The post How Conveyor Belts are Manufactured Quickly In-House appeared first on QC Conveyors.

While adjustable guides allow conveyors to quickly accommodate different product sizes, gripper elevators present a unique challenge. These conveyor systems “grip” the product between two conveyors on their sides in order to move it to a different level or invert it temporarily during production.

To accommodate varying package sizes, the gap between conveyors must be narrowed or widened. A fixed mount would make this difficult or even impossible. That’s why a unique geared adjustment system is available for mounting these conveyors, allowing the gap between them to be adjusted with little effort for quick changeovers.

The geared adjustment units are positioned at multiple points along the length of the conveyor and connected via a series of shafts and gear boxes, including right angle gearboxes that help connect even the most complicated types of gripper elevators. A single adjustment wheel adjusts the width of the entire system.

The shaft can be equipped with a rotation counter, making it easy to dial in exactly the right width for the various products transported by the system.

The post Adjusting the Width of Gripper Elevators appeared first on QC Conveyors.

1. Register/Log In
   Enter your username and password to log in or create a new account.
2. Choose “Configure Now”
   Navigate to the HC200 section and click “Configure Now”
3. Choose to enter application data
   We strongly recommend opting to enter your application data so the Configurator can verify that the components will work together properly for your application.
4. Enter application data
   The Configurator asks some basic questions about your application, including:
   • the total maximum load that will be on the conveyor at one time
   • whether or not accumulation will be involved
   • whether the conveyor will be exposed to chemicals or heat
   • desired belt speed in FPM (our conversion tools can help you convert from other units)

   You may also enter notes about the product/application

   

5. Choose conveyor specifics
   Choose whether the conveyor will be pushing or pulling and which side the motor will be mounted
   Choose width and length
   Enter infeed and discharge heights
   Note that most choices on this screen have an effect on the conveyor’s load capacity. The graph on the right shows the available load for each width, the load (or effective load if you’ve chosen an incline or decline), and how those relate.
6. Choose a belt
   All available belts are listed with specifications (more are available by scrolling to the right). You’ll also see how the belt effects the conveyor’s lead time and price.
   Narrow down the belts you’re interested in by clicking the checkboxes, then click “Click to Compare” at the top to filter the list to just those belts.
7. Review and add the conveyor to your BOM
   A spare belt is also automatically added for reference, but is not included in the total price by default
8. Click Drive (if desired; otherwise move to step 14)
9. Enter Drive Data
   Choose the approximate number of hours the gearmotor will run each day
   Enter the number of starts and stops per hour
10. Choose Washdown or Standard Motors
    While HC200 Conveyors are generally used in washdown applications, there are times when a washdown motor may not be necessary
11. Choose a mounting type
    The chart on the right shows the maximum speed for each mounting
12. Choose gearmotor
    Choose the incoming motor voltage/phases
    The gear ratio that gets closest to the speed you entered in the application data will be selected automatically, but you are free to adjust this to a gear ratio with a different speed if desired.
13. Review and add the gearmotor to your BOM
14. Click Sides/Guides (if desired; otherwise move to step 17)
15. Choose height and style
16. Review and add sides/guides to your BOM
17. Click Support (if desired; otherwise move to step 20)
18. Choose a stand type or mounts
    A recommended stand package will be chosen automatically based on the application data you’ve entered
    Mounts will allow you to choose between standard mounts or raised mounts.
19. Review and add supports to your BOM
20. Download CAD and Spec Sheets
    Click the “Download” tab and check any CAD models, 2D drawings, exploded views and spec sheets you’d like to download then click Download at the bottom. A ZIP file will be created and the download will begin.
21. Click “Request Price”
    Enter any special instructions and click Submit to send your price request to your local distributor. Each request is reviewed for errors by our staff, so please allow up to one business day for a response.

Tips & Tricks

• Some changes (such as width and length) may be made directly from the BOM list. Mouse over the item you’d like to change and click “Edit”
• Items may be rearranged in the list by mousing over them and choosing “Move Up” or “Move Down”
• Bills of Materials can be renamed by clicking the name just under the quote number. This allows the conveyor to be named better to match up with your internal notation (e.g., “infeed conveyor”)
• An entire BOM may be copied by visiting Tools > Copy BOM. This is useful when creating multiple similar conveyors that only have slight variations (e.g., length).
• The quote window may be expanded to make it easier to read by clicking the arrow in the upper left
• A new BOM may be created by choosing the “New BOM” tab at the top of the screen. Quotes may contain multiple BOMs, with each BOM containing a different conveyor that can be from any of our configurable series.

Errors and Warnings

The panel at the bottom of the screen may include errors and warnings that must be acknowledged before a price may be requested. Options will appear for correcting those errors automatically. Errors typically occur when edits are made after items are added to the BOM, for instance changing the width of the conveyor will prompt an error when the stand width doesn’t match the conveyor width.

Help!

If you ever have a question about the Conveyor Configurator, please reach out to our Applications Engineering department at (513) 753-6000 or using our contact form. They are happy to walk you through configuring a conveyor!

The post How to configure an HC200 Conveyor using the Conveyor Configurator appeared first on QC Conveyors.

Thankfully there’s a simple-but-ingenious way to allow such adjustments: overlapping two separate pieces of guide rail in the curve. The overlap provides the extra material needed for widening the guides and takes up any extra when the width is reduced, but still contains the product on the conveyor.

Adjustable guides on a 180° wheel bend.

Adjustable guides on a 90° wheel bend.

Flextrac Series guides are available in a wide variety of styles and configurations to fit any application. Our Applications Engineering team can help design exactly the right guides for your conveyor.

The post How do adjustable guides work around curves? appeared first on QC Conveyors.