Martin Engineering Rolls Out Urethane Belt Sealing in EMEAI
Martin Engineering has released its polyurethane conveyor belt sealing portfolio across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the Indian subcontinent, extending a range that has already been fielded in North and South America over the past twelve months. The launch gathers four sealing systems under one umbrella for conveyor transfer points, the spots where spillage and fugitive dust consume a disproportionate share of maintenance hours in bulk handling plants.
The range covers different transfer point configurations. The Martin Skirtboard Liner with T-Bolt Slot installs inside the skirtboard to absorb impact and abrasion, forming a dam that keeps material away from the seal itself. GravitySeal Self-Adjusting Skirting maintains its seal automatically without routine adjustment and suits conveyors with minimal free belt edge or tight clearance. A heavy-duty HD Max version targets the most demanding applications, while ApronSeal Urethane Skirting comes as a one-piece or two-piece assembly in which a self-adjusting secondary seal captures dust and fines while staying clear of the main material flow. Field results from Vale's CPBS iron ore terminal at Itaguai, Brazil, illustrate the stakes: after a Skirtboard Liner and GravitySeal kit was installed alongside a belt replacement, measured belt wear fell from roughly 2.0 mm to between 0.5 and 0.7 mm within one month, and expected belt service life extended from about six months to more than eighteen. Reiner Fertig, business development manager for conveyor products in EMEAI, said the expanded portfolio gives customers a comprehensive choice to protect sealing systems from impact, accommodate limited belt-edge space, or provide durable containment.
For equipment buyers, the practical lesson from the CPBS case is that sealing should be specified as a system rather than purchased as a consumable. Belt wear of 2.0 mm per month against 0.5 to 0.7 mm translates directly into replacement frequency, so the sealing kit's unit price matters far less than its effect on belt life and the labor hours spent on adjustment. Buyers should therefore require suppliers to quote against measured wear data or a site assessment, as Martin Engineering did in Brazil, rather than accept catalog selections. The self-adjusting designs deserve particular attention where belts run with limited edge clearance, because external adjustment removes routine work at the transfer point and the safety exposure that comes with it. Availability now runs through Martin Engineering's country business units in EMEAI with hands-on technical assistance for matching the seal type to each duty, which lowers the risk of misapplication during specification. For mining, cement, steel and aggregate operators planning conveyor upgrades in the region, the launch widens the pool of qualified sealing options and gives procurement teams a benchmark for evaluating competing skirtboard and skirting packages on total cost of ownership rather than initial price.