This company plays a major role in each of our lives. However, it is likely that most of us have never heard of the company or the work it does to provide us with creature comforts like heat in the winter and air conditioning in the summer, and food for our daily tables. The company is Charlotte, N.C.-headquartered Scandura, the second-largest manufacturer of conveyor belting in North America.
Scandura’s two major business segments include heavyweight conveyor belting used in both underground and above-ground coal mining, quarries and other mines, and in forest-products applications. Its lightweight conveyor belting is used in package handling, food handling and warehousing, and in distribution-center applications.
Scandura is the world’s leading manufacturer of heavy-duty straight-warp, rubber-cover conveyor belting, which is the most durable conveyor belt design available in the industry. The company is the leader in interwoven flame-retardant, anti-static conveyor belting for underground mining applications. It is also a world leader in rubber-ply constructions and is one of only two manufacturers of steel-cord belting in North America.
Begun in 1879 in Scandinavia, Scandura’s rich heritage is renowned throughout the industry. In 1904, the company expanded its operations and opened a manufacturing plant in Paterson, N.J., then another in 1926 in Charlotte. Today, the company operates five ISO-certified manufacturing plants, with a network of more than 100 distributors.
The Scandura name is synonymous with coal operations. In the early 1920s, the company originated the first fire-resistant conveyor belt used in underground coal mining. Today, Scandura’s heavyweight conveyor belting is used primarily in coal mining applications. This belting is also used in conveying coal for power generation plants, wood products in the logging industry and grain and other agricultural products. “We are the quality and service leader in the conveyor belt manufacturing industry for North America,” says Randy Kelley, president and chief executive officer. Heavyweight conveyor belting carries coal from beneath the ground to above-ground scrubbing and coal preparation operations. The coal is then conveyed overland, as much as several miles, for loading and shipping.
“This is a very demanding application,” says Kelley. “Safety is the primary factor because of the high propensity for fires. You are dealing with methane and coal dust underground, so these conveyor belts have to be flame-retardant.” As many who have studied the history of coal mining in this country know, underground coal mine fires in the old days were actually helped by those old conveyor belts, which spread the fires. “Today, most of the flame-retardant and abrasion-resistant properties are achieved through advanced rubber chemistry and the rubber coating we use,” says Kelley.
The underground mines require a very elaborate system of conveyor belting. “It’s not just one belt, but a series of conveyor belts because you have to move the coal through a lot of different tunnels to get it out of the mine,” says Kelley. “So you are talking about tens of thousands of feet of conveyor belting being used in one mine.” Most of these heavyweight conveyor belts are used in the major coal-producing areas of the country, including the West Virginia-Kentucky pocket, the Pennsylvania-Ohio area, the Illinois-Indiana sector and western mines in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming.
All of the applications using Scandura heavyweight conveyor belting operate in extremely rugged conditions and require belting with exceptional durability and reliability. “Our customers tell us that the quality of Scandura belting is superior in the industry,” says Kelley. “Our objective is to provide the lowest cost-in-use conveyor belt products to all of the industries we serve. Our objective is not to be the cheapest belt, but the highest-quality belt and the highest value-added belt.”
One of the challenges in designing conveyor belting for lightweight applications is that the belting has to be designed against producing