Quarry conveyor systems carry crushed rock from the primary crusher to the screens, the stockpiles, and the load-out, in about the hardest material a belt ever sees. Rock is heavy, sharp, and abrasive. It lands in lumps rather than a gentle stream. It runs shift after shift. Remcon designs, fabricates, and installs custom heavy-duty belt conveyors out of Airway Heights, Washington, built to order around your material and your layout.
Where Conveyors Sit in an Aggregate Plant
An aggregate plant is a sequence. Pit run crosses a scalping screen, goes through a primary crusher, on to secondary and tertiary crushing, across sizing screens, and out to graded stockpiles and the load-out. Oversize goes back around for another pass. Every arrow between those boxes is a conveyor.
So a quarry conveyor is not one machine. It is a set of jobs sharing one basic machine:
- Crusher discharge. The belt under a crusher takes lumps from height. Foot for foot, the hardest-used steel and rubber in the plant: see crusher discharge conveyors.
- Closed circuit. The runs that take screen oversize back to a crusher and return it to the deck.
- Screen discharge. One conveyor per graded product, off each deck, out to its own pile.
- Stockpiling. The inclined run that builds the pile. Incline is a belt question first: see maximum conveyor incline angle.
- Reclaim and load-out. Out from under the pile or a bin, into the truck or railcar.
- Surge and storage. Feeding and drawing bins, bunkers, and hoppers so one slow step does not stall everything behind it.
They are not interchangeable. The crusher discharge belt needs impact protection the stockpile belt never will. How those runs meet and hand off has its own page: transfer conveyors.
Filling a Row of Bins: Where a Shuttle Conveyor Fits
Most of the runs above go one place. One job does not. When a single stream has to reach several destinations — a row of product bins, surge bins, aggregate bins under a batch plant — there are three ways to do it: a dedicated conveyor over every position with gates upstream, a tripper riding a conveyor that spans the whole row, or one conveyor that travels. The third is a shuttle conveyor, a belt conveyor on a wheeled carriage rolling along a fixed track, with a belt that runs forward and reverse so material leaves off either end.
The reversing belt is what keeps the machine short: because material can leave from either end, the carriage never has to span the storage it serves. 911 Metallurgist states the rule in one line: a shuttle need be only slightly longer than one-half the stockpile length to discharge anywhere along it. Against a dedicated conveyor per position, that is one belt drive and one travel drive rather than a drive over every bin, and no diverter gate or flop chute sitting in the stream for rock to wedge in. Remcon builds the bins and bunker walls underneath as well.
Where a shuttle does not belong
Out in the yard a shuttle is usually the expensive answer, and the same reference says so: shuttles are normally limited to enclosed storage, because outdoor stacking arrangements cost less for the same pile. That is the boundary, and it is worth knowing before somebody sells you across it. A shuttle earns its keep where the footprint has to be rectangular — inside a building, along a bin row, over a reclaim tunnel — and where the discharge has to land in a defined position rather than anywhere on a pile. For an open stockpile, the inclined run listed above is the cheaper machine.
What travel does and does not do about segregation
A traveling discharge does not stop segregation. It changes the shape and the scale of it, and how you reclaim decides whether that helps you. Graniterock puts the threshold at a largest-to-smallest particle size ratio above 2:1, and notes that a three-quarter-inch base product is already over it. What happens past that threshold is overrun: coarse particles hit the front face of the pile with greater momentum and roll down the outer edge to the toe.
What travel does buy is real, and the source is a DOT rather than a catalog. Georgia DOT's aggregate certification guide says that keeping production cones under stationary conveyor belts to a manageable height minimizes segregation, and that cones left to build up become segregated to their fullest extent. A discharge that keeps moving is one way of never letting a cone get there.
The catch is the pile it builds instead. Laying material back and forth along one center line is chevron stacking, and a chevron pile puts the fines in the core and the coarse on the surface and down at both toes, the whole length of the pile. Reclaimed across its full cross section, face to floor, it blends. Worked from one end or one toe, it ships coarse. Settle how the pile gets reclaimed before anyone designs the machine that builds it.
What Changes When the Material Is Abrasive
A conveyor for cardboard and a conveyor for crushed basalt look like the same machine on a drawing. They are not the same machine in the shop. Conveyors for abrasive materials are not a separate product line with their own model numbers. They are ordinary belt conveyors on which six decisions went differently, and all six get made before steel is cut.
Belt cover grade and thickness
Two ARPM cover grades come up in rock work. Grade I carries the higher rubber tensile and elongation requirements and is the usual recommendation for large, heavy lump ore, granite, and trap rock, where cutting and gouging is the failure mode. Grade II is the general recommendation for most above-ground abrasive handling: crushed ore and rock, limestone, slag, sand, aggregate. Know this before anyone sells you the higher number. The grade is a minimum-property specification, not a ranking of abrasion resistance, and cover thickness matters as much as the grade printed on it. See how to read a conveyor belt spec.
Trough angle
The common angles are 20, 35, and 45 degrees. Which angle suits which load is settled on the troughing idler conveyor page. What abrasive service adds is a conflict between two things you want at once. Twenty degrees was the old standard, and better belt construction is what made 35 and 45 ordinary. The deeper trough is worth having: going from 20 to 35 degrees adds roughly a quarter to the cross-sectional area the belt carries. But the thick cover you want for wear life stiffens the belt again, and a stiff belt fights a deep trough. A 45-degree trough also needs longer transition lengths at the pulleys and pulls more power at the idler junction. On rock, cover thickness and trough angle get decided in the same conversation, not one after the other.
Idler class and spacing
CEMA grades idler rolls into classes by shell thickness, bearing size, and maximum load, from Class B to Class F across belt widths of 18 to 120 inches. Heavier material and wider belts want a heavier class and closer sets, because sag between sets pushes material out the sides and opens gaps at the skirt seal. Remcon does not publish one class it uses on every job. Diameter, class, and spacing are sized to the application and quoted per job.
The load zone
One short stretch of belt decides how often the whole machine comes down, which makes this an economic question before it is a mechanical one. Bent idler frames, rolls that fail early, and a spillage pile that keeps coming back are how a plant learns the zone was specified for a gentler drop than it actually gets. Rubber cushion-disc impact idler sets are the starting point. Drop height, lump size, and how far the skirting has to run before the load settles decide what else belongs there, and all of it gets specified with the conveyor rather than bolted on after. The detail, including where an impact bed beats idlers and how long the skirtboard has to be, is on the crusher discharge conveyor page.
Chutes, hoppers, and everything the rock slides across
The belt is not the only thing wearing. Chutes, hoppers, impact walls, and discharge points get worked by the same rock, and the standard fix is abrasion-resistant plate in the high-wear zones, bolted in as a replaceable liner rather than welded in as structure. The wear surface is then a consumable and the vessel is not. What AR400 and AR500 are, and why bolting beats welding, is covered in stainless steel vs. abrasion resistance. An abrasion resistant conveyor is not a model you can order. It is four decisions: cover grade, plate grade, where the liner bolts in, and how often you plan to change it.
Belt speed
Speed is a wear multiplier that never shows up on a spec sheet as one. The usual working band for bulk belts is about 500 to 700 feet per minute, and above roughly 800 feet per minute, four meters per second, cover and roller-bearing wear climb sharply on hard rock, because speed raises the energy at every transfer and the RPM on every idler. The lever is width: a wider belt moves the same material at a lower, more forgiving speed.
The Record: What We Have Built for Rock and Minerals
The heavy-duty troughing idler conveyor below was fabricated for a silver mine. Three-roll troughing sets on the carrying side, flat return rolls beneath, built to take ore rather than to look good in a brochure.
Minerals work is familiar ground here. Also in the job book: sand conveyors built in 2012, a drag chain belt built in 2025 for a contractor who services mines, and a magnetite separation job in 2011. Different machines, same kind of material. Recycling is the larger part of what leaves this shop, and that is the point rather than the caveat: glass, cans and C&D fines are abrasive, wet and full of tramp metal, and a frame built to survive that is the same frame a rock plant needs.
What carries over is the shop, not a track record in rock. Remcon comes at this work from the recycling industry, equipment that handles materials that are rough on machines, such as whole and broken glass and tin and aluminum cans, and we have built machinery for mining, construction, and manufacturing alongside our recycling and solid waste lines since 1977. Glass and cans are not crushed basalt, and nobody here will tell you otherwise. What transfers is the fabrication, the component selection, and the crews that install it.
One number from that sand job, because nobody else publishes theirs. The idler line on the drawing reads PPI, CEMA class C, 18-inch belt, 5-inch rolls, a 35-degree carrying trough, and a 20-degree flat return. That is what the material and the layout called for on that job. It is not a house standard, and anyone who quotes you a class before asking what you are moving is guessing.
The Drive
Remcon's conveyor drive standard is the Dodge Torque Arm II shaft-mounted reducer, v-belt driven. These reducers have been used almost exclusively in the sand, rock, gravel, and mining industries for many years, and are well proven. Remcon has used them since 1990.
Read that for what it says. It is a claim about the reducer, not about us. What it means for a quarry buyer is that the drive on a Remcon conveyor is the same drive family the pits have run for decades, and parts for it sit on a distributor's shelf rather than in one shop in Washington. Sizing and bearings: conveyor drive and bearing specs that actually matter.
Conveyor or Truck Haul
Any fixed conveyor run in a pit competes with a haul road and a truck. Do that arithmetic before anyone quotes steel.
The tradeoff is capital cost against operating cost. A study of an iron ore operation in Brazil put the capital cost of a haul truck fleet at a little over half the cost of building the conveyor, while the operating cost of moving a ton by conveyor came out at about a quarter of the truck cost, with 29 percent lower carbon emissions. That is the general pattern: conveyors cost more to put in, cost less per ton to run, and need less maintenance per ton over the same distance.
So a conveyor wins on two fixed points, a lot of material, and years of it. What a conveyor cannot do is move. If the face keeps advancing, or the volume between two points is occasional, the truck is still the right tool and we will say so. None of that depends on a claim about Remcon. It is arithmetic about your site.
A Quarry Conveyor Manufacturer, Not a Distributor
Much of what sells quarry conveyors online is a belting distributor or an importer working from a catalog. Remcon is a quarry conveyor manufacturer in the literal sense: the design, the steel, and the installation crew come out of one building in Airway Heights, Washington, and nothing is stocked. Every machine is designed, fabricated, installed, and later repaired by the same shop, which is why the specifications below are ranges and selections rather than model numbers. A custom quarry conveyor that has to fit between an existing screen tower and a stockpile is a drawing problem before it is a manufacturing problem. Frames are heavy welded steel, sized to the load and the site, and long runs ship in bolted sections for assembly on site.
- Dimensions that match the site. Length, lift, discharge height, and frame set by where the machine has to go.
- One shop for the surrounding steel. Hoppers, chutes, bins and bunkers, and the catwalks and ladders that let somebody reach the machine.
- Sourced equipment integrated. We fabricate conveyors and buy in what others build better. See turn-key conveyor systems.
- Nationwide shipping and installation. Conveyors ship from Airway Heights, Washington, and Remcon's own crews erect them. See installation services.
- Parts after the sale. Replacement belts and parts for the life of the machine, for our equipment and other brands.
Covers for Outdoor Service
Most quarry runs are outdoors, which adds two problems the plant floor does not have. Rain and snow soak the product and can slip the belt. Wind lifts fines off the belt and scatters them across the site. Covers and hoods over the carrying run address both, and shield the belt and idlers from UV and grit besides. Fugitive dust is regulated, so on some sites a cover is a permit question rather than a housekeeping one. Remcon builds covers and hoods into conveyors that run outdoors or carry material that cannot be allowed to blow around.
Quarry & Aggregate Conveyor Specifications
The real numbers and the real selections. Where something is quoted per job it says so.
| Item | What Remcon builds |
|---|---|
| Belt width | 12 to 72 inches across the Remcon conveyor line. Be honest about the bottom of that: 12 inches is a fines-and-parts width, not an aggregate width. CEMA's troughing idler classes cover belts from 18 inches up to 120. For rock, you are shopping the middle and upper part of our range. |
| Trough angle | 20, 35, and 45 degrees, the common industry angles. Selected with the belt, not before it. |
| Carrying idlers | Three-roll troughing idler sets. Diameter, class, and spacing sized to the application and quoted per job. |
| Return rolls | Flat return rolls carrying the empty belt back beneath the frame. |
| Load zone | Rubber cushion-disc impact idler sets, as lump size and drop height require. |
| Belt | Rubber or PVC, matched to the material and the trough angle. Cover grade and thickness specified for the duty. |
| Drive | Dodge Torque Arm II shaft-mounted reducer, v-belt driven. In use at Remcon since 1990. |
| Frame | Heavy-duty welded steel, fabricated for the site and the load. Long runs ship in bolted sections. |
| Length, lift, discharge height | Sized to the layout and quoted per job. |
| Capacity | Not published. Tell us the material, the lump size, and the tonnage, and belt width, speed, and trough angle get sized around them. |
| Options | Covers and hoods for outdoor service, hoppers, chutes, skirting, belt sidewalls, cleats, catwalks. |
| Installation | Shipped and installed nationwide from Airway Heights, WA, by Remcon's own crews. |
What We Need to Quote It
A useful quote starts from six things, none a model number.
- The material, and its largest lump.
- The tonnage you need through it.
- Where it picks up, where it discharges, and the lift between.
- What loads it, and from what height: crusher, screen deck, hopper, front loader.
- Indoors or outdoors.
- What is already there, if the machine has to fit an existing plant.
Send that and you get a design rather than a cut sheet. Remcon also repairs, rebuilds, and relocates equipment that is already installed, so if the question is whether an existing run is worth saving, that is a conversation too. See the rest of the line on the conveyors page, or get a quote.
Quarry & Aggregate Conveyor FAQ
Does Remcon build conveyors for quarries and aggregate plants?
Yes, built to order. Remcon has fabricated a heavy-duty troughing idler conveyor for a silver mine, sand conveyors, a drag chain belt for a contractor who services mines, and a magnetite separation job. Remcon has run its recycling and solid waste equipment lines since 1977 and has built machinery for mining, construction, and manufacturing alongside them. What carries over is the engineering: Remcon comes at this work from the recycling industry, building equipment for materials that are rough on machines, such as whole and broken glass and tin and aluminum cans. Quarry and aggregate conveyors are designed, fabricated, and installed to order out of Airway Heights, Washington.
What belt widths do you build for aggregate?
The Remcon conveyor line runs 12 to 72 inches, and for crushed rock, sand, and gravel you are shopping the middle and upper part of that range. CEMA's troughing idler classes start at an 18-inch belt, so 12 inches is a fines-and-parts width rather than an aggregate width. Width also interacts with speed: a wider belt moves the same tonnage slower, which is easier on covers, bearings, and transfers.
How do you keep chutes and hoppers from wearing out in rock service?
With abrasion-resistant plate in the high-wear zones, bolted in as a replaceable liner rather than welded in as part of the structure. Chutes, impact walls, hopper walls, and discharge points take sliding abrasion and impact continuously, and the point of a bolt-in liner is that the wear surface is a consumable while the vessel underneath is not. Which grade goes where is covered in our stainless vs. abrasion resistance guide.
When does a conveyor beat hauling with trucks?
When both ends are fixed and the material keeps moving between them for years. Conveyors generally cost more to install and much less to run. One study of an iron ore operation put conveyor operating cost per ton at roughly a quarter of truck haulage, with 29 percent lower emissions, against a truck fleet whose capital cost was a little over half that of the conveyor. What a conveyor cannot do is move, so an advancing face or a destination that changes seasonally still favors trucks.
Do you build covered conveyors for outdoor quarry runs?
Yes. Covers and hoods over the carrying run keep rain and snow off the product, stop wind from lifting fines off the belt, and shield the belt and idlers from UV and grit. Some jurisdictions require conveyors to be covered to limit dust dispersion. Say at quote time that the run is outdoors, so covers are designed in rather than bolted on afterward.
Can Remcon ship and install a conveyor outside Washington?
Yes. Conveyors are designed and fabricated in Airway Heights, Washington, outside Spokane, then shipped and installed nationwide by Remcon's own crews. Long runs ship in bolted sections so they can be trucked and assembled on site. We also supply replacement belts and parts for the life of the machine, for our own equipment and other brands.
Where would a shuttle conveyor fit in an aggregate plant?
Wherever one stream has to reach several destinations under a roof: a row of product or surge bins, aggregate bins under a batch plant, enclosed storage. Because the belt reverses and discharges off either end, the machine needs to be only a little over half the length of the row it serves, and travels to cover the rest. Outdoor stockpiling is a different question. Out in the yard a fixed inclined conveyor is usually the cheaper answer.
Can one conveyor fill several product bins without diverter gates?
That is what a shuttle conveyor does. Instead of splitting the stream upstream with gates or chutes, the whole machine moves: it rides a fixed track above the row, stops where the controls put it, and reverses the belt to drop into whichever position it is parked over. One belt drive and one travel drive replace a dedicated conveyor over every bin, and nothing sits in the material path for rock to wedge in. Remcon builds the bins and bunker walls as well.