Pocket belt conveyor
A pocket belt conveyor (See Figure 4.4) has corrugated
sidewalls running along the length of the belt and straight
walls running across the belt. Due to this geometry it
forms pockets, which can capture debris along with some
of the water. This solution ensures that even the smallest
particles are collected, since the entire batch of water
that they float in is picked up. It does however require a
preliminary step that collects the larger particles, since
the belt pockets would otherwise have to be very large to
be able to collect the largest particles. Depending on the
acceptable water amount, a dewatering step is required.
Advantages
• Similar to the scoops, the entire body of water that
surrounds the plastic particles is collected, which
ensures that even the smallest particles are caught.
• Depending on the depth of the pockets, the angle of
the conveyor can become steeper, which makes it
shorter and thus will require a smaller support
structure.
Disad vantages
• If plastic parts are larger than the pockets, they might
fall off the conveyor.
• A body of water is always collected, which will lead to
higher energy consumption.