Create Stress-free Budgets with Tension-free Belting
The most common reason to use tensioned flat belts is gone
- Insights
- June 13, 2025
Still think the food conveyance world is flat? Experts say that position’s starting to look a little old-fashioned.
By now, decades of industry-wide product recalls and breakdowns have demonstrated flat belts’ shortcomings. Still, many food processors use these tensioned fabric belts or at least strongly consider using them during project planning.
Compared to positively driven homogeneous and modular plastic belting (MPB), it’s agreed that these traditional belts have increased risk of mistracking, catchpoints, and foreign material contamination (FMC). It’s even widely understood that—with its increased downtime and maintenance leading to frequent replacements—flat belting’s total cost of ownership (TCO) is higher than modular options like ThermoDrive and other Intralox MPB.
The primary traditional argument remaining for traditional belting is that it provides significant up-front savings when building a conveyor. Which, to be fair, is a strong one: A big enough difference in initial cost can make or break projects and bids for any operation.
But what if the price difference isn’t as big as commonly thought? What if that’s just an industry misperception? What if, sometimes, conveyors designed with positively driven MPB are actually less expensive up front?
Our experts have determined that, for many OEMs and food processors, the most common reason to consider tensioned flat belts instead of Intralox positive-drive belting is gone. Here's why.
Simpler Conveyor Design
The key misunderstanding, one of our experts said, lies not in choosing between initial cost and TCO, but in failing to consider the conveyor’s build cost. Namely, the costs eliminated by positive-drive belting.
“We’ve heard from our customers that conveyors using tensioned belts require more complex designs,” said Gurvinder Gandhi, Business Development Analyst at Intralox. “Once tension is introduced to the system, it must be managed.”
This means the cost of a frame robust enough to withstand flat belting’s tension can make up—or even surpass—positively driven belting’s price difference.
“Our belting might list more expensive, but it significantly eases the conveyor’s structural requirements,” Gandhi continued. “Extra design elements, more components—these additions become more expensive than any difference in belt price.”
The modularity of our options also lowers cost by eliminating the need for splicing. Usually an inherent cost addition to a belt, splicing is completely eliminated by our MPB and Thermodrive belting with ZeroSplice technology.
A more hygienic conveyor doesn’t mean a more expensive conveyor anymore.
Business Development Analyst at Intralox
At any rate, belting usually only accounts for up to 20% of the conveyor’s total cost. Coupled with the frame savings Gandhi mentioned, designing with ThermoDrive or MPB rather than traditional belting often has a negligible effect on the overall bid.
Gandhi speculated that the price differential may cap at 10–15%—when it exists at all—and that sometimes Intralox MPB could enable 15–20% cheaper conveyors.
“The amount will depend on the application, but the bottom line is that the savings can often offset that perceived initial cost difference between tensioned and tensionless conveyors,” Gandhi said. “A more hygienic conveyor doesn’t mean a more expensive conveyor anymore.”
Recovered Uptime
“We’re simplifying things for our customers,” said John Landrum, Vice President for Product Development. “Flat belt maintenance requires a certain skillset, more intensive and complex than with our ThermoDrive and MPB.”
In addition to pricey skilled labor, traditional belting maintenance is more time-consuming and frequent than MPB maintenance. This significant downtime lowers a line's efficiency and product yield.
“There’s inherent downtime in flat, fabric belting,” Landrum said. “It’s expected behavior. Tension comes with a host of evils—mistracking, fraying, FMC, you name it. Positive drive categorically eliminates them.”
You have to do something wrong to our modular plastic belting to create downtime.
VP for Product Development at Intralox
Intralox’s positive drive removes all tension from the conveyance system, eliminating any expectation of downtime at all. Plus, our belting’s modular construction drastically reduces it when it occurs.
“You have to do something wrong to our modular plastic belting to create downtime,” Landrum said. “Coupled with the simpler conveyor frames that become achievable, that recovered uptime makes tensionless belting the less risky choice in any application I can think of.”
He explained that—with the price between tensioned and non-tensioned conveyance systems now comparable—modular belting’s reliability and uptime should be considered the new standard.
“If MPB inherently eliminates downtime and is no longer a more expensive option, why would anyone choose the alternative?” Landrum asked. “And that’s truth—it’s the reality we’re seeing in the market.”
“It’s like you’re watching a black and white TV, and someone asks how your picture quality is,” Gandhi added. “If it’s all you’ve seen, you might say—oh it’s great. But what if color became an option for roughly the same price?
“Well, now your picture probably feels like it's missing something.”
The New Standard is Intralox
Intralox’s tensionless belting removes all of the production challenges the food industry accepts from tensioned fabric belts—while simplifying conveyor design to lower build costs. When you decide to switch from traditional flat belting, Intralox’s expertise, services, and guarantees can help ensure long-term performance and compatibility. Plus, our reliably stocked inventory and industry-best lead times easily meet your project deadlines anywhere in the world.
Get started using CalcLab—a cloud-based engineering platform and repository for our belt calculators—or contact your Intralox Account Manager.
