How to clean the conveyor rollers?

The conveyor systems used in industry, depending on the type of products that move, such as conveyor belts or roller conveyors, require different cleaning and maintenance processes.

If roller conveyor systems are part of the distribution chain of items already included in boxes, it will require less cleaning work than those rollers that are in direct contact with the product. The latter is the case of the rollers used in the food or fruit and vegetable industry.

The cleaning of the conveyor rollers and its proper maintenance will guarantee the efficient transport and the useful life of the conveyor rollers.

Conveyor rollers are made of different materials depending on the type of products for which it is used. One of the aspects that we must take into account is that the products that we use for cleaning (chemical products) do not spoil the composition of the roller or change its structure. For example, if it is a roller with a rubberized surface or a roller with stainless steel, PVC, steel, aluminum or galvanized and painted; each type of material may not be resistant to certain products.

The agro-food industry is one of those that most requires cleaning of the rollers in its warehouses and processing plants. Also, this is necessary in portable processing systems located on the farm and in meat, bakery and other food industries. Many products are juicy (oranges and citrus fruit in general, tomatoes, etc.) and can give off liquids (many of them acids) during processing. These acids can damage the roller if they are not cleaned regularly.

In case of manual cleaning of the rollers, by means of cleaning operators, it is essential that they know the composition of the surface and that they only use cleaning products that do not spoil the material. For this reason, there are specific cleaning products for cleaning rollers that guarantee their cleaning efficiency while not damaging the roller. We also have specific roller brushes for cleaning roller conveyors, with different types of fibers suitable for each material and use.

In general, when we work with a high number of surfaces with rollers, a more careful and thorough cleaning is required; we have mechanized roller cleaning systems available on the market that provide excellent cleaning results, reducing downtime and reducing costs of maintenance.

The roller cleaning by cleaning robots. These are cleaning systems that are placed on the rollers while it is running (turning). The cleaning system moves along the roller or rollers making turns. At its base, it can have different types of specific roller contact systems for cleaning and treating each type of roller. These robots release the appropriate cleaning product during its movement on the roller while it rotates while cleaning. It can be used and adapted to any conveyor system. It is very efficient and with these we obtain an excellent result. We can find it for example in the cleaning of the ceramic rollers of tempering furnaces.

The conveyor rollers themselves can be a cleaning system for the agro-food industry. Thus, we have fiber rollers made of different types of fibers (nylon, polyamide, polypropylene, natural fibers, metallic or abrasive fibers). In turn, these rollers can have different arrangement in its fibers (compact, spiral to the right or left, in V, in parallel, in a group of 3, etc.) and with different density to carry out effective cleaning in different transport systems. These rollers are also used in the cleaning of industrial machinery.

Maintaining the conveyor rollers in good condition requires a review of the mechanized and movement-related structures, but also an appropriate cleaning protocol for each type of activity.