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The spreading, converging and diverging conveyors

For more than 60 years we have been bringing solutions to difficult conveying challenges.

Over 30 years ago Wire Belt launched the Spreader/Converger conveyor, now known as Ladder-Flex™ Conveyors.

Our Ladder-Flex™ conveyors were originally designed in house to meet the demands of the confectionery industry where products needed to be separated in lanes to avoid sticking during the enrobing process. Having successfully installed a varied selection of unique Ladder-Flex™ conveyors they have proved to be the ideal solution to long standing problems for on-the-move processors.

ladderflex conveyor

Spreading, converging and sorting products while on the move is a major requirement for a wide range of applications. Processing problems needing a change of belt width, to suit various proprietary equipment can be instantly resolved with the use of a Ladder-Flex™ Conveyor.

In the confectionery industry there are a wide range of products, which need to be separated and spread prior to being processed. After processing, the same product may well need to be converged to narrower width belting prior to cooling or packaging. Products that require coating for example, may need to be separated to avoid any sticking during the enrobing process.

Wire Belt’s positively driven non-slip Ladder-Flex™ Conveyors, can spread or converge, using narrow width strands of single space stainless steel belting. A conveyor comprises rows of belting running on a food grade high density blue polyethylene support surface and a series of small stainless steel sprockets driving within the mesh of the belt strands.

The standard principle is the ‘fan type’ spreader/converger. The alternative ‘placement’ spreader/converger would be used where the product is in a known discipline location, and movement is achieved by feeding the product on to a series of straight chains carrying the product to a predetermined position at the exit of the conveyor. This method is particularly used for handling products being carried to packaging line equipment.