Drying

Conveyor belts for industrial drying applications

Industrial drying removes moisture from a product using heated air, ambient air, or a combination of temperature and airflow, before packaging or a further production step. The conveyor belt sits directly in that step. It determines how the product is supported, how much air reaches and moves around it, and how consistently moisture is removed across the width of the belt.

Get the belt wrong and the line pays for it downstream: uneven drying, case hardening, longer residence times to compensate, and product that fails a moisture spec at the end of the line. Get it right, and moisture content, throughput and cleaning performance stop being variables you have to manage manually.

Airflow and moisture removal

Every product on a drying line needs the same thing: even exposure to moving air, front to back and side to side, so moisture leaves the product at a consistent rate. When belt speed, product spacing or airflow is inconsistent, the belt is usually where the inconsistency started.

An open metal conveyor belt structure lets air pass through the product zone from below as well as above, instead of only moving across the top of a solid surface. That is the difference between a belt that transports product and a belt that becomes part of the drying process.

The right structure depends on the product. Delicate products need a stable, supportive surface with minimal marking. Heavier or bulk products need strength and rigidity. High-moisture products need aggressive open area and drainage before airflow can do its job. Twentebelt matches belt type, mesh opening, wire diameter and belt geometry to what the product and the drying method actually need, not to a standard catalogue size.

Conveyor belt behaviour in high-airflow, variable-temperature environments

Drying environments punish weak engineering. Belts run through continuous airflow, temperature swings, product residue and repeated cleaning cycles, all while moving continuously. A belt that isn’t built for that will show it fast: uneven tension, tracking problems, drift in dimensional stability. Our conveyor belts are built to stay dimensionally stable under those conditions, resist the mechanical stress of continuous airflow and cleaning, and keep tracking predictably whether the line runs hot-air tunnels or ambient dewatering zones. That reliability is the actual product. The belt itself is just the delivery mechanism.

Hygienic design for food processing

In food-grade drying, hygiene isn’t a checkbox, it’s a production constraint. Dried product residue and fines build up fast, and a belt that traps them costs you cleaning time today and food safety risk tomorrow. The open structure of a metal conveyor belt lets air, cleaning agents and residue pass straight through instead of collecting on top. That shortens cleaning cycles and reduces the chance of build-up becoming a contamination risk. For food processors, hygienic belt performance is a food safety requirement, and it’s also an uptime number: fewer minutes lost to cleaning is more minutes running.

Stable product handling during drying

A product entering a dryer doesn’t behave like the product that leaves it. Moisture content drops, weight decreases, and texture can shift from soft to brittle as the process progresses. That makes product handling in a dryer more sensitive than in a standard transport application, especially near the end of the line where product is lightest and most fragile. The belt has to hold a balance between open and supportive. Too open, and lightweight or fragile product loses stability or falls through. Too closed, and you choke the airflow the whole process depends on. Twentebelt configures belts around that exact trade-off, whether the line runs fruit, nuts, vegetables, potatoes, meat, poultry, fish or dairy products.

Drying methods and belt selection

Not every drying system is built the same way. Some lines use heated air to remove moisture. Others rely on cooling and drying zones, dewatering sections, air knives, tunnel dryers or multi-stage systems where the product changes condition throughout the process.

Each layout makes different demands on the belt. Tunnel dryers need stable support and consistent tracking over longer runs. Airflow-based systems need a belt structure that supports air movement through the product zone. Dewatering or surface-drying sections need open area and drainage. Delicate products need smooth transfer and controlled support.

Twentebelt supplies two belt types built for exactly this range of drying layouts:
• Eyelink belts – a robust, permeable, flat-surface belt for drying lines where product load, stable support and airflow matter most.
• Wire mesh belts — a high open-area belt with minimal product contact, built for lines where airflow, drainage and cleanability are the priority.

Choosing the right conveyor belt for drying

There is no universal belt for every drying line. The right one comes out of how product, moisture, airflow and system layout interact, not from choosing the most open or heaviest belt by default.

Factors that actually decide it:
• Product type, weight and shape
• Moisture level at infeed
• Required final moisture level or surface dryness
• Required airflow and open area
• Drying temperature
• Residence time
• Belt speed
• Product support requirements
• Transfer points
• Cleaning procedure and frequency
• Previous process step, such as washing, blanching, steaming or coating
• Downstream process, such as cooling, freezing, packaging or further cooking

Twentebelt works through these factors with you before recommending a belt, not after.

Eyelink belts for drying applications

Eyelink combines strength, permeability and a flat conveying surface, which matters most when a product needs stable support and effective airflow at the same time. The flat surface keeps products positioned consistently across the belt width, while the open structure supports air movement, moisture removal and cleaning. Eyelink is especially suitable when a product needs stable carrying support: heavier products, fragile products, products with changing texture as they dry, or applications where product marking must be limited.

Eyelink belts run in drying lines for fruit, nuts, vegetables, potatoes, meat, poultry, fish, dairy products and other food or non-food products where stable transport and an open structure need to work together.

Wire mesh belts for drying applications

Wire mesh belts combine a high open area with minimal product contact, which matters most when airflow, drainage and cleanability are the priority. The open structure lets air pass through the belt and around the product, while excess moisture drains away instead of collecting on the surface. Positive drive and reliable tracking keep movement predictable across continuous production runs, which matters where stable product spacing is essential.

Wire mesh belts run in drying applications for bakery products, vegetables, fruit, meat, poultry, fish, dairy products and other products that require controlled airflow and drainage.

Engineered conveyor belt solutions for controlled drying

A drying process is not just a temperature setting or an airspeed calculation. Airflow, moisture removal, product support, belt openness, residence time, cleaning and transfer quality all decide the outcome, and the conveyor belt is where those factors meet.

Twentebelt has been engineering metal conveyor belts for over 100 years. That experience is what lets us match belt design to product behaviour and process conditions before the belt is built. Machine builders and end users work with us because the belt is configured around the line, not corrected after installation.

It starts with a conversation about your product, your drying process and your line. We are Twentebelt, and we’d be glad to have that conversation.

Contact us