If you’re using an outside crew to install endless splices on your conveyor belts, there are a few steps you have to take the minute you realize the belt needs to be fixed. First, you have to decide if this needs to be an immediate fix, or if you can move production to another line and add it to an upcoming scheduled maintenance visit. If you can’t wait, and need it fixed right away, you’ll need to pick up the phone and schedule a repair.
If your service provider can get a crew there immediately, you will only have to wait for their drive time to get started on your belts. If they don’t have a crew available, you may have to wait a while to get your belt fixed, which costs you time and money. Regardless of how long it takes to get there, the truth of the matter is that the minute that belt goes down, you lose control over your production.
Taking Control With In-House Endless Splicing
With in-house conveyor belt splicing, you have the opportunity to take control of your belt maintenance and repairs. You can schedule proactive maintenance in accordance with your schedule. And if a belt goes down, your in-house maintenance crew can get it back up and running in the amount of time it takes you to head to the break room to refill your coffee. Better yet, if that situation happens on a weekend, when you are running an extra shift, time and a half doesn’t have to be paid to your service provider.
In-house conveyor belt splicing puts you in charge of your own destiny and empowers your maintenance crew to spot potential repairs and take matters into their own hands to keep production going. That’s because portable splice presses have come a long way in the last 10 years. With a little training and some technology, the same maintenance crew who shuts down the belt for preventative maintenance and replaces bearings, idlers, and drives, can also be the ones who are putting in splices with a portable splice press.
How Does It Work?
The newest generation of portable splice presses have intuitive controls, making it easy to train employees to enter belt recipes and run the machines. Setting time, temperature, and pressure is something that can be done quickly and easily, and fault codes are programmed in for easy error diagnoses and troubleshooting.
With the ability to save recipes straight to the press, the Novitool® Aero® Splice Press from Flexco even makes consistent, quality splices possible from maintenance crew to maintenance crew, shift to shift. No more searching for the notebook that contains all those recipes, or relying on that one guy who “knows the belt.”
Operating the Novitool Aero Splice Press is easy. Check out or operation video here:
Another perk of these portable splice presses is that because of air-cooled technology, no outside tanks or water sources are needed, drastically reducing set-up and tear-down time, as well as overall splice time.
Are You Ready to Take Control?
Are you interested in seeing how bringing your endless belt splicing in-house can save you time and money? Would you like to have a Flexco representative visit your site to show you just how quick and easy it is to get your operation back up and running in a fraction of the time of using an outside service provider? 
for a free on-site demo of the Aero Press.
Authored by: Michelle Graves, Product Manager
Graves manages the overall global business, market plans, technical support, and activities associated with the light-duty belting market for the Novitool® product line, including new product development, market analysis, and global strategy. Graves holds a bachelor’s degree from Albion College as well as a master’s degree from Grand Valley State University.