Belt Risers

[clutchplate]

Does anyone use belt risers? All thoughts are welcome.

[8270king]

I must admit they do not work

Seriously....the removal of the belt runner works.....you don't have to raise the belt...you lower the pin in relation to the rails

[Mcgolf12]

We have them on 10 or 11 of out 12 machines. I think they're worth it! The pins seem to turn in the right direction a little bit faster and orient and space out better. Just my 2 cents

[Tablejam]

Well it all depends, mainly on how things are on the machine. May work great on one but terrible on another. I have them on several machines and I have removed some. The machines they are on make the pins contact the belt sooner which gets them moving forward quicker. The machines that do not have them can't because the pins fly off the side of the pan or fishtail. This of course is with old machines and decent parts and adjustments. Its one of those things that can help or make it worse, again really depends on the machine.

[rivmike]

If you have a pad on the pan to slow down the head first pin you don't need a riser.Check out another dizzy problem and you will see pics of what will allow you to lower the kidney to the center of both slots and won't have head first or fishtaling pins.

[Tablejam]

I've have been kicking around the idea or removing the runner just to see what happens, but haven't got around to it yet. But the idea behind it makes a lot of sense, if the pins fall into the pan lower there is less or no chance they can fishtail or roll off the pan because essentially you are making the pan deeper which is interesting considering the A machine, I think 83/30s, and the new elevator all have deeper pans so the pins come out quickly, orient, then move forward, which is exactly what should happen. If it wasn't for the shallow O pan/guide rails on the 70 there would never be a need for any of the add on mods that have come out, because they would not be necessary. You should not have to set your adjustments based on the pan being so touchy with how it handles the pins, but that's exactly what you have to do to get it to work. It should be that the pins can come out as fast as you want, should not matter, with the right design the pan will do its job and get the pins moving.

[MCSS]

I used them with good results, but not just by itself. I had the pin seating rod modification as well, and running poly-v belts. When running by itself the pins will want to roll off the distributor. Reason I added them after the pin seating rod mod was to help the pin make contact with the belt faster. It is a time consuming process and requires the rest of the distributor to be in good running order and adjusted properly.

Removal of the belt running does work, but I didn't like it when there was a jam. Pins get caught under the belt, throwing the belt off track and causing it to fray. Also doesn't work the best with thinner belts. Rough top belt worked good.

[Tablejam]

Removal of the belt running does work, but I didn't like it when there was a jam. Pins get caught under the belt, throwing the belt off track and causing it to fray. Also doesn't work the best with thinner belts. Rough top belt worked good.

Isn't removing the runner supposed to prevent that?

[NeverSeenThat]

Well it all depends, mainly on how things are on the machine. May work great on one but terrible on another. I have them on several machines and I have removed some. The machines they are on make the pins contact the belt sooner which gets them moving forward quicker. This of course is with old machines and decent parts and adjustments. Its one of those things that can help or make it worse, again really depends on the machine.

IMO bet risers are just another tool in our bag of tricks which keeps the FPS lower. When I first went into the current center, found that at least 60% of the machines ran better not only with a riser but with a higher (1/2") riser that was cut out of 1/2"HDPE. Now a year later, new parts and many adjustments later, only a few machines run better with the higher riser, some with a regular riser, and some run better as designed.
I have slowed down the turning of head and butt first pins and some machines benefit from having the pins turn quicker. If they turn too quick, they can catch the pin in front of it and if they turn too slow, the pin behind it can catch up with it. I try to maintain as equal spacing as possible.

Oddly enough, we took measurements of the height of the pan from the pinwheel, height of the kidney from the wheel, the distance of the kidney from the center of the distributor pan with the dist. at the 1 or 5 bin, and the distance of the pan to the wheel on 2 machines. the one machine had the fewest orientation stops and the other machine had the most stops. I was absolutely amazed when we compared the measurements because they were almost identical between the 2 machines! How is this possible? To me it just proves that you gotta do what you gotta do to make them run good because although the machines are all the same, they are all different.

[Pin_Head]

I find honestly some lanes work GREAT with them and others don't it's very much a trial and error thing, I did however try removing the belt runner on my most problem dizzy and so far no pile ups in 5 days, would pile up 3-4 times a day previously.... but tried the no belt runner on another lane and caused a world of hurt.....

But yeah I'd definitely have a few belt risers on hand as they can be a great help....


The biggest thing I have noticed from removing the belt runner is the pins can tend to bounce a little going up the belt....

[pinfeed]

Oddly enough, we took measurements of the height of the pan from the pinwheel, height of the kidney from the wheel, the distance of the kidney from the center of the distributor pan with the dist. at the 1 or 5 bin, and the distance of the pan to the wheel on 2 machines. the one machine had the fewest orientation stops and the other machine had the most stops. I was absolutely amazed when we compared the measurements because they were almost identical between the 2 machines! How is this possible? To me it just proves that you gotta do what you gotta do to make them run good because although the machines are all the same, they are all different.

Hmmm...

[MarkyB]

You know what you can use instead? A bin guide, they slot under the belt runner and give you a bit of lift, handy if you have lots of them knocking around as spares, just to try them out

[seanm]

I've used belt risers before, and as stated some machines will accept them no problems, others will cause many issues. They were only used on poly-v belts so the belly of the pin would be forced onto the belt. They certainly worked on most problem machines.