How Are Conveyor Belts Cleaned?

Whether it’s an open-pit mine running 24/7 to move ore, or a large port handling bulk cargo across hundreds of meters, conveyor belts carry massive volumes of coal, iron ore, fertilizer, sand, and aggregates every day. After long periods of heavy-duty operation, material inevitably sticks to the belt surface.
This carryback doesn’t just waste material—it triggers a chain of operational, safety, and cost problems.

So here’s a question worth asking: how much risk and hidden cost can poor belt cleaning really create?

Why Efficient Conveyor Belt Cleaning Is Critical in Mining and Ports?

· Material loss adds up fast:
Industry data shows that carryback can account for 0.5%–3% of total throughput in mining and port operations. For facilities handling tens of millions of tons per year, that can mean millions of dollars in lost material annually.

· Downtime is far more expensive than cleaning:
Build-up on rollers and pulleys can cause belt misalignment, abnormal wear, or even belt tears. Once a system goes down, repair costs plus lost production often far exceed the initial investment in proper cleaning equipment.

· Environmental and safety pressure keeps rising:
Spilled material and dust increase air pollution and, in coal operations, raise the risk of dust explosions. They also threaten worker health. Around the world, environmental regulations are setting stricter limits on dust emissions from conveyor systems.

· Problems spread down the entire process line:
Carryback entering crushers, screens, and stacking systems can cause blockages and unplanned shutdowns, affecting product quality and overall system reliability.

In short, keeping conveyor belts clean protects both profits and people.

The Limits of Traditional Cleaning Methods:

For decades, most operations relied on a few common approaches—but under heavy-load, large-scale conditions, they often fall short:

· High-pressure water cleaning:
Effective, but extremely water-intensive. Not practical in water-scarce mining areas. It also creates slurry wastewater and can freeze in winter.

· Scraper cleaners:
Work reasonably well on smooth belts, but struggle with chevron, ribbed, sidewall, or profiled belts. Residual material can still reach 30–60% in complex belt surfaces.

· Manual cleaning:
Slow, labor-intensive, and risky. Increasingly restricted by modern safety regulations.

· Air blow-off systems:
Useful for dry dust, but largely ineffective against sticky or wet materials.

Our Solution: Conveyor Belt Cleaning Brush for All Belt Types.

Our Conveyor belt cleaning brush uses high-speed rotating bristles to reach deep into belt grooves and patterns, removing material that scrapers simply can’t touch.
All products are manufactured under ISO 9001 quality management standards, ensuring consistent performance and reliability across global markets.

Key Advantages:

· Deep, no-dead-angle cleaning:
The rotating brush design removes stubborn carryback from chevron, sidewall, grooved, and other complex belt surfaces. Compared with traditional scrapers, a Conveyor belt cleaning brush significantly reduces residual material in mining and port applications.

· Longer uptime and extended equipment life:
By minimizing material build-up, our system reduces wear on belts, rollers, and pulleys—helping extend service life and lower overall maintenance costs.

· Wide compatibility:
Designed to integrate easily with both standard and customized conveyor systems. Suitable for a wide range of belt brands and configurations, with simple installation and strong adaptability.

· Low maintenance, high reliability:
The brush-based approach is gentler on the belt surface, requires less frequent adjustment, and supports longer continuous operation with fewer unexpected stops.

· Cleaner and safer worksites:
Better control of dust and spillage improves working conditions and helps operations meet environmental and safety requirements. A properly selected Conveyor belt cleaning brush plays a direct role in cleaner, safer material handling.

If you’re dealing with stubborn carryback, excessive wear, or frequent shutdowns, feel free to contact us and share your operating conditions and material type.
Our experienced team will recommend a solution tailored to your application—so your conveyor system runs cleaner, longer, and more cost-effectively. We look forward to hearing from you.