Garland idlers

Garland idlers, also called catenary idlers, are an alternative to the rigid frame idlers.

There are two fundamentally different ways of fixing the belt conveyor rollers in the conveyor:

• In the first variant, the rollers are given absolutely fixed positions by inserting them into the corresponding cut-outs in the idler frames (smaller steel frames to hold the rollers). Such idlers are called "fixed idlers" and consist of the idler frame (also called "support frame") and the corresponding rollers inserted into this idler frame.
• In the second variant, the rollers are hinged together and then attached with flexible links to the steel structures of the conveyor. Several hingedly connected rollers are called "roller garland". Together with the garland suspensions they build a "garland idler" or "catenary idler". The rollers of this type are called "garland rollers" or "catenary rollers". This type of roller fixation allows the rollers to move transversely to the conveying direction and thus offers important advantages.

The rollers in a garland are connected to each other in a similar way to the chain links. In most cases, even the chain links of standard chains are used to connect individual conveyor rollers to form a garland.

The support frames hold the garlands in position. There are several different types of garland suspensions that are used to attach the roller garlands to the conveyor frames.