Custom conveyor pulleys, FEA-verified

The Lorbrand standard

Built to last

Every Lorbrand pulley is designed around the conveyor it will run on: the torque, the belt tensions, the fatigue loading and the environment.

Lorbrand rolls the shell, machines the shaft and end discs and assembles the bearings in-house, and verifies each pulley before dispatch.

More than two decades of those orders have put Lorbrand pulleys on some of the hardest-working conveyors in the world.

Product range

Pulley types

Conventional

Drive, tail, bend, snub and take-up pulleys for every position on the conveyor.

Internal bearing

Bearings housed inside the end discs for compact installations and lighter support structures.

Grain herringbone

Self-cleaning wing construction for enclosed grain and free-flowing product conveyors.

Slatted

Open shells that shed water, fines and build-up in wet and sticky applications.

Before manufacture

Analysed down to the weld

Every pulley design is verified with finite element analysis, and critical welds are designed for fatigue with full penetration. The analysis follows the pulley from shell deflection to the stress in the weld itself.

The shell

Rolled from plate, in-house

Shells are rolled in-house from plate up to 80 mm thick, then circumferentially welded with full penetration. Rolling our own shells keeps the roundness, the weld preparation and the schedule under our control.

Plate to 80 mm Full-penetration circumferential welds

Shafts

Precision CNC machining

Shafts are machined in-house with the bearing seats, hub fits and keyways each assembly needs, from bar or from custom step forgings.

Ø800 mmMaximum machined diameter

7 000 mmMaximum length

Step forgingsCustom forged blanks for the largest pulleys

S45C · AISI 4140 · AISI 4340Standard material grades

End discs

Profiled for fatigue life

Pulley end discs are profiled to withstand the high locking element pressures and to accommodate bending moments so that the locking elements and welds are not overloaded.

ProfilesTurbine, T-bottom and asymmetric T-bottom

ThicknessUp to 300 mm, from plate or custom step forgings

MaterialsS355J2+N carbon steel; 304 and 316 stainless

Turbine

1 / 3

For medium-duty pulleys. More cost-effective to produce and suited to lighter loads.

For heavy-duty pulleys where the welds need to sit in a lower-stress area.

For heavy-duty pulleys where high-bending-moment locking elements apply asymmetric radial loads to the end disc bore. The flat profile sits adjacent to the high-pressure side of the locking element, so from the outside it looks like an unprofiled end disc.

Rotating assembly

Bearings, housings & locking elements

Bearings

Spherical roller bearings from SKF, FAG, HFB and Timken, sized to the shaft and the load.

Housings

SNL, SAF, THDD and STL series plummer blocks, and custom housings machined for the bearing and the sealing arrangement.

Locking elements

Ringfeder and Bikon assemblies up to Ø700 mm, sized to the torque they transmit.

Take-up housings

Custom take-up housings machined from a single S355 billet for sliding frames and gravity towers.

Sealing

Taconite grease-purged sealing for the most contaminated environments.

TS labyrinth sealing where speeds and service intervals need a non-contact arrangement.

Traction and wear

Rubber and ceramic lagging

Rubber and ceramic lagging, applied cold-bonded or hot-vulcanised to suit the pulley and the site. Ceramic tiles are available rubber-backed or bonded directly to the shell, with direct bond reserved for the most abrasive positions. Compounds include natural rubber, SBR and polyurethane, with FRAS grades available.

A uniform rubber layer used mainly on non-drive pulleys, providing reliable traction in clean and dry environments.

Triangular grooves that clear water and fines from the belt contact while keeping a continuous grip band.

The general-purpose drive pattern. Diamond grooves shed water and hold traction in wet conditions.

Chevron grooves that channel water outward from the belt centre for high-traction drive positions.

Square ceramic tiles in a rubber matrix, bonded to the shell for high-wear drive applications.

Split-diamond ceramic tiles, combining the drainage of a grooved pattern with ceramic wear life.

Pulley with square-tile rubber-backed ceramic lagging

Pulley with split-diamond rubber-backed ceramic lagging

Quality control

Weld, heat treatment and balance on record

Circumferential welds are cut, polished and etched to confirm full penetration, and post-weld heat treatment is recorded against the specified cycle.

InspectionITP with hold points at every critical stage

BalancingStatic on every pulley, dynamic where required; ISO 21940-11 grade G40

DocumentationMDR with every order, including NDT, balancing and material certificates

Weld macro cross-section — Weld macro section

Post-weld heat treatment cycle record — PWHT cycle record

Delivered worldwide

Packed and secured for transport

Seaworthy packaging protects exposed surfaces in transit, and load securing is CTU Code compliant: engineered restraint, lashing and blocking for container and flat-rack loading.

Seaworthy packaging CTU Code compliant securing Container and flat-rack loading

Palletised pulley being lifted by crane for loading

References

Pulleys in service

Cerro Verde In-Pit Crushing & Conveying System

Heavy-duty Lorbrand idlers and pulleys for the In-Pit Crushing and Conveying expansion at one of the world's largest copper-molybdenum operations, thirty years after the first supply here.

2025

Cerro Verde IPCC

Arequipa, Peru

Lorbrand idlers and pulleys across the second concentrator at the Centinela copper mine, from the in-plant conveyors to the primary crushing belt feeders.