Metal vs Plastic Belts

The contact surface of plastic belts offer a more non stick surface than metal belts.

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Metal belts have more styles to choose from, and more manufacturers. 

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At this writing, metal belts would generally be considered as less complicated on the frame construction primarily due the belt support system used. A typical 36" wide metal belt takes 2 supports for this width, while it takes 3 to properly support a plastic belt (due to lateral belt deflection). This can be avoided with plastic by putting metal connector rods periodically into the belt ( to obtain lateral stiffness).On the flip side of this, it could be proven in the future that while metal belts generally run on both horizontal and vertical plastic wear strips, a plastic belt could be run on metal structure only, eliminating wear strips altogether. Construction could then be easier with plastic. 

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Plastic belting has proven itself to be a better alternative when the application calls for higher belt speeds, as metal belts have generally been used only in applications where these speeds do not exceed 150 FPM. 

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With plastic belts you do not lubricate at all. With metal belts, lubrication is required in certain applications in order to reduce friction.

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Since plastic belts have a lower friction factor and generally run at less belt tensions than metal, we expect plastic belts to outlast metal on a given suitable application, although plastic belts on spirals are still relatively new (13 years compared to 33 years on metal).

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Metal belts is the best choice for now (over 220 F), due to both plastic material compositions and costing associated with high temperature materials.

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In all applications, available strength factors and expected belt tensions for both metal and plastic are related to the "radius weight factor" which is the weight of the product and the belt multiplied by its radius. A lighter belt allows for more capabilities. 

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