Many of our readers use conveyor belts in their daily professional activities, but have never thought about when and who came up with this invaluable device.
Meanwhile, on April 1, one can rightfully celebrate not only April Fool's Day, but also the Day of the conveyor. The fact is that on this day, April 1, 1913, the world's first belt conveyor was launched at the Henry Ford automobile plant in Detroit.
On this day, the Ford company several times increased the efficiency of workers who assembled twice as many car generators. Three months later, entire cars were moved along the conveyor belt of the Henry Ford factory using drive belts were moving entire cars.
There, in Detroit, this device got its current name - a conveyor, derived from the English verb to convey, which means to move, to transfer.
Interestingly, at the beginning of its "journey", the conveyor was a source of angry publications and even social protests, fueled by leftist publicists and writers. The magic device that shook the whole world was called a hellish device, the only purpose of which is to fire as many workers as possible from production.
However, the conveyor belt, and then the conveyor belts, eventually replaced the hard work of hundreds of thousands of workers in factories, mines and logistics centers. Conveyor belt has become the main pulling and carrying body of the belt conveyor. Composite and other high-tech materials are increasingly used for its production.
The modern conveyor belt is the product of new technologies and the result of many years of research activity. This irreplaceable equipment is gradually penetrating into all spheres of human activity: into supermarkets and subways, airports and train stations, post offices and manufacturing. Wherever it is necessary to transfer the cargo over a certain distance, a conveyor is used. At the same time, the distance for modern conveyors is not something limited. For example, in Australia, the largest mining company BHPBilliton, with the participation of Habasit, is building a conveyor with a length of about 12 kilometers to deliver iron ore from the mine directly to the port.
