Rubber V-belts from SWR Europe can be stored for several years without causing any performance or reliability loss. The quality of SWR Europe belts does not change significantly within ight years when stored properly under normal conditions.

For a correct storage, some prescription has to be taken into account as given below.

1. Environment: The storage premises should be cool, dry and well ventilated

2. Temperature: Storage temperature should be within +5?C and +30?C. Extremely low temperatures causes stiffening in the belt but are accepted in the storage. In order to avoid damages in the start-up, it becomes necessary to heat the belt up to around 20?C before making it run on the machine.

Very high temperatures above 48?C should be avoided. From a base of eight years of 85?F (30?C), the storage limit should be reduced by one-half for each 8?C (15?F) increase in temperature. The minimum distance from heating sources should be at least one metre.

3. Light: Belts should be protected from light, especially direct sunlight and artificial light with high ultraviolet rays (neon light).

4. Ozone: Equipment generating ozone, like high voltage electrical machines or fluorescent light sources, should not be installed in the storage. Also combustion gases and vapours, that can cause ozone, should be avoided.

5. Chemicals: Flammable materials, lubricants, acids and any other aggressive material should not be kept in the storage. Belts elastomers may be affected or even irreparably damaged by such agents.

6. Relative Humidity: Up to 70 per cent is considered normal for storage of rubber v-belts. With a significant increase in humidity, it is possible for fungus or mildew to form on stored belts. This does not appear to cause any serious belt damage but should be avoided if possible. Humidity, plus storage, may be more important to the length of the belt than to its residual service life, because certain fibres commonly used for the tensile strength member of belts are relatively prone to storage shrinkage.

Good storage facilities and practices will allow the user to achieve the most value from SWR products. The V-belts when stacked on shelves, the stacks should be small enough to avoid excess weight on the bottom belts, which may cause distortion.

When stored in containers, the container size and contents should be sufficiently limited to avoid distortion, particularly to those belts at the bottom of the box/ container. SWR ships V-belts from manufacturing plants in boxes for maximum protection.

The SWR Europe belts are kept in these boxes on shelves until they are shipped from stock yards to dealers/users for the use, strictly on "First in- First out" (FIFO) basis to ensure proper rotation of stock.

[Refer Rubber Manufacturer Association's technical bulletin RMA IP-3-4 (1997) for more information on storage and shelf life]

(SWR Belting (India) Pvt Ltd, Ghaziadad, UP. Tel: 0120-4159660/61. Fax: 91-120-4159662, 4151360. Email: info@swrbelting.com, support@swrbelting.com)