Trends in Belt and Conveyor Technology

Sustainability, Efficiency and Portability Highlight Supplier Efforts

The global belt market is projected to experience steady growth from 2025 to 2035, according to a forecast by Future Market Insights (futuremarketinsights.com) This growth is driven by increasing demand across industries such as manufacturing, automotive, agriculture and mining, where V-belts play a crucial role in power transmission systems.

The market is benefiting from advancements in material technology, the rising adoption of energy-efficient belt systems and the expansion of industrial automation. Stringent regulations promoting energy-efficient machinery are expected to drive further innovation in the sector. The industrial V belts market is also poised for steady expansion due to the rising demand for efficient power transmission systems in heavy industries. The following is a collection of the latest trends and technologies in belts, belt drives and conveyors.

Conveyance and Mining Solutions with Continental

Continental’s group sector ContiTech recently hosted its Total Conveyance Event in celebration of the expansion of its conveyor belt manufacturing facility in Ponta Grossa, Paraná, Brazil. The two-day event featured a ribbon-cutting ceremony and welcomed approximately 100 guests, including customers, industry professionals and local leaders.

“It’s a pleasure to welcome our customers and guests to Ponta Grossa for the ContiTech Total Conveyance and Ribbon-Cutting Event,” Gerstenberger said. “This milestone not only marks the official expansion of our Ponta Grossa facility but also reinforces our long-term commitment to our customers, to innovation, and to our deep materials expertise in conveyor belt technology.”

The new 7,000 square-meter conveyor belt plant expansion is designed to enhance ContiTech’s competitiveness, doubling, or even tripling, its capacity in the coming years. The expansion includes production lines featuring advanced new rubber mixing, rubber blanket calendering, vulcanization, and inspection technologies, with the aim of guaranteeing excellence at every stage of the process. The expanded facility underscores ContiTech’s strategy to deliver safe, efficient and innovative material handling solutions through its full ecosystem of belts, systems, services and expertise.

“We were honored to have our valued customers and partners attend our Total Conveyance Event,” said Sven Hlywiak, vice president of customer engineered solutions, industrial solutions Americas. “Their presence underscores our commitment to the region and our shared vision for the future of conveying. Alongside our investment in the Ponta Grossa plant expansion, this event reflects our long-term commitment to be the first choice for material-driven solutions for our customers.”

Last year’s MINExpo in Las Vegas provided a unique opportunity to learn more about Continental’s diverse mining portfolio including technologies for:

Pulley lagging

Continental’s pulley lagging solutions are now available at their new facility in West Virginia, which also has splice kits and repair materials available on-demand. The location, an Elastotec Approved Installer, houses a recently installed autoclave, offering hot vulcanized lagging, as well as cold bonding. Continental is a distributor of Elastotec lagging in North America, including sole rights to their proprietary finishing equipment, and with authorization to certify people in the installation of their lagging.

Steel cord belts

Continental’s Phoenix Phoenocord ST10000 belt is considered one of the world’s strongest according to belt rating. Phoenix Phoenocord steel-reinforced conveyor belts are made for the harshest applications, delivering extreme durability and reliable performance with high-capacity and high-breaking strength, making it a suitable solution for above and below ground use.

Comprehensive conveying solutions services

Continental’s comprehensive conveyor belt services include installation, maintenance, repair and splicing, and various components, all from one single source.

Conti+ 2.0

Continental has enhanced its app-based service platform Conti+, making it much simpler, faster and more comprehensive. The technology provides advanced options to manage conveyor systems and increases efficiency and profitability of an operation across all components and processes.

Hoses, air springs, power transmission belts

The company offered numerous other products supporting the mining industry, including fluid hoses and specialty mining hoses, suspensions and power transmission belts, monitoring and more. Additional industries served include agriculture, aggregates, cement processing, metal processing, material handling and more.

continental-industry.com

Sustainability with Gates Corporation

Earlier this year, Gates received the 2025 Environmental Initiative SEAL Awards for its innovative Chain-to-Belt initiative. With it, Gates is redefining industry standards by offering synchronous belts as a superior alternative to traditional roller chains. Gates is proud to be recognized as one of the winners of the prestigious SEAL Awards, which celebrates global leaders in Sustainability, Environmental Achievement, and Leadership. This honor highlights the company’s commitment to impactful environmental initiatives that drive lasting positive change and positions Gates among other leading global organizations.

Matt Harney, chairperson and founder of the SEAL Awards said, “2025 represents our ninth SEAL Business Sustainability Award event. This year’s award recipients follow a 9-year trendline of greater impact materiality and deeper granularity. Across all industries and geographies, companies are going deep and granular—into materials, chemistry, processes, R&D, supply chains and more—to generate sustainability improvements.”

Industrial operations have historically relied on numerous roller chain drives, creating multiple opportunities for conversion to belt drives. Gates is on a mission to replace roller chain systems with their cutting-edge synchronous belt technology. To prove this initiative is both highly viable and impactful, they conducted a third-party comprehensive analysis comparing the environmental impact of the Gates Poly Chain GT Carbon belts to traditional roller chain systems. The study found that the Gates belt driven systems have a potential reduction of 90 percent in CO₂ equivalent emissions or more over a 10-year period compared to roller chain systems.

gates.com

AMMEGA Launches Belting Technology Connect Program

AMMEGA Group, global provider of belting solutions for conveying and power transmission, announces the launch of its Belting Technology Connect Program. Available to customers in the Americas, the BTConnect program is a year-round vehicle for AMMEGA’s belting experts to deliver customizable technical seminars on belting optimization shaped by customer needs. The new program was inspired by the company’s bi-annual live Belting Technology Conference (BTC) event, whose latest edition was this May in Braselton, GA, attracting more than 200 attendees from approximately 35 companies across the Americas.

Sessions for the BTConnect program are available in three modalities: at a customer site, at AMMEGA’s facilities, or virtual, with the possibility to choose sessions that matter most to a customer’s business. Topics range from logistics, food and beverage, automotive, material handling, packaging and more, and include subsegments such as parcel, postal (for logistics), and baking and snack, meat (for food), among others.

“AMMEGA’s close collaboration with customers, and deep knowledge of their challenges and needs, is what has always propelled AMMEGA’s innovation forward,” said Tom Doring, President of Americas at AMMEGA. “We pride ourselves in understanding underlying problems and anticipating desired outcomes and are thrilled to offer a personalized experience to our valued customers.”

BTConnect is the latest customer-centric offering by AMMEGA with sessions taking into consideration an array of trends in today’s dynamic business environment. Most recently, topics of AI and predictive maintenance, as well as reducing noise levels, and confidently navigating belt selection. Consulting is also available on more niche industry-specific issues, such as food safety or managing tariffs, to ensure customers are meeting their business, operational, and sustainability goals.

ammega.com

RISE Robotics Collaborates with U.S. Army to Develop Portable Structural Systems

RISE Robotics, a provider of next-generation actuation technologies, has been awarded a Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract from the U.S. Army to explore the feasibility of developing collapsible, ultra-lightweight cranes for rapid deployment in resource-constrained and expeditionary environments.

The eight-month, $250,000 contract is sponsored by Letterkenny Army Depot and was awarded under the Army’s Mobile Sustainment Tools Open Topic (A244-P056). The effort aims to evaluate how RISE’s proprietary Beltdraulic actuation system can be leveraged to develop portable structural systems that are easy to transport, quick to assemble, and capable of withstanding harsh conditions.

“This effort reflects the Army’s growing focus on enabling rapid mobility and logistical efficiency in the field,” said Tom Phelps, COO of RISE Robotics. “With this Phase I award, we’re excited to explore how our Beltdraulic technology can address critical operational gaps through lighter, more agile lifting equipment.”

The Phase I work builds on RISE’s proven track record of delivering defense-grade lifting systems. RISE previously completed a Phase III production contract with the U.S. Air Force for the Common Lifting Device (CLD), a compact, electronic-free lift system developed to support the MC-130J Silent Knight Radar program. The CLD features a lift capacity of 200 pounds, a maximum lift height of 11 feet 10 inches, and a total system weight of just 215 pounds. Its successful transition to production highlights RISE’s ability to deliver innovative, field-deployable solutions at scale.

Under this new Army contract, RISE will investigate how its CLD platform and Beltdraulic architecture can be adapted to meet Army-specific needs. This includes exploring structural modifications, such as moving boom-type crane arms, evaluating the use of larger wheels for off-road mobility, and developing design variants for lower-profile lifting use cases. RISE team members will engage directly with Army personnel to gather operational insights and define mission-driven requirements for future development.

The Phase I effort will include demonstrating CLD capabilities to Army stakeholders, developing a tailored document based on end-user feedback, and a roadmap identifying high-impact Army applications for a next-generation collapsible crane. The outcome will help shape a potential Phase II program to deliver a prototype that meets expeditionary mission requirements.

riserobotics.com