FABRIC CONVEYOR BELT (EP / NN)

A fabric conveyor belt is the most common type of industrial belt. Its load-bearing carcass is built from layers of woven synthetic fabric — usually EP (polyester warp, nylon weft) or NN (all-nylon) — laminated together with thin rubber skim coats. The fabric provides longitudinal tensile strength to transmit traction from the drive pulley, while the weft fibres give transverse stiffness for troughing and impact resistance.

Belts are specified using a ply-rating notation. EP 500/4 means an EP carcass with 500 N/mm total nominal breaking strength distributed across 4 plies. Common ratings range from EP 200/2 for light packaging duty to EP 2500/6 for heavy mineral haulage. The number of plies affects flexibility, troughability and minimum drum diameter: more plies give higher strength but require a larger drive pulley to bend without internal delamination. Compared to a steel cord conveyor belt, fabric belts are cheaper, easier to splice in the field with mechanical fasteners or a hot vulcanized belt splice, and tolerate impact better at loading points.

Cover grades follow ISO 10247 / DIN 22102, classifying the rubber compound by abrasion (D, H, L), oil-resistance, heat-resistance or anti-static behaviour. Top covers carry the cargo and absorb impact; bottom covers face the pulleys and idlers and are typically thinner. Choosing the cover compound is as important as choosing the carcass — an oversized carcass with the wrong cover compound will still wear out prematurely.

Fabric belts dominate quarries, ports, cement plants, recycling lines and food handling — anywhere centre distance is below roughly 1,000 m and the duty does not exceed about 1600 N/mm.