Conveyor belts of special importance must have superior mechanical characteristics. The joining by vulcanization of the conveyor belts allows to obtain superior performances, but it has been found that at the vulcanizing joint of the conveyor belts, there is a "bell"-type defect. This type of defect can cause the quick removal of the conveyor belts from use; thus, within this paper, we realized the constructive optimization of vulcanization installations using the finite element method (FEM). Thus, the FEM analysis was performed for the installation used at the present time, which has four spacers for stiffening, moving to the next stage to a stiffening system with seven spacers and, in the last stage, it was proposed to use a stiffening plate. The joined conveyor belts were of type ST 2000, and by the constructive optimization of the vulcanizing press type DSLQ, the bell-type defect was greatly reduced. Also, an analysis of the effects that the constructive optimization of the vulcanization installation has on the resistance to extraction of the metallic insert from the rubber matrix of the costs determined by the proposed constructive modifications, has been performed.
Keywords: constructive optimization; conveyor belts; finite element method; jointing; “bell”-type defect.