Thai natural rubber and tire production lines typically include hot mixing, cooling, and finished-goods conveying and stacking sections. Conveyor loads vary significantly as the process changes. In many early designs, factories only installed simple backstops on the main drive, ignoring local slopes and critical elevation changes. As a result, during shutdowns or faults, some sections still run backward, causing rubber strips to accumulate and, in the worst cases, pulling hot semi-finished material back into hazardous zones.

For this kind of “multi-section, varying load” line, it is more effective to choose different types of one-way clutches by section. Our usual recommendation for Thai rubber and tire customers is to use cam-type integrated clutches on light-load, high-speed sections, and roller-type freewheels on heavy-load lifts. For example, on finished-goods conveyors or light slopes, we suggest Suma BB40 and BB50 cam clutch bearings, suitable for approx. 40–50 mm shafts at gearbox outputs. On heavy mixing or semi-finished lifting sections, we specify Suma AS40–AS50 roller-type clutches to gain higher backstop torque.

This zoned configuration ensures that each part of the conveyor line uses a properly rated backstop, while the overall design still revolves around a limited set of shaft diameters and a few Suma models, making spare parts and engineering easier to standardize. In a retrofit project at a Thai tire plant, reselecting clutches according to this concept allowed multiple sections to stop in a controlled way during line-stop tests. The previous situation—some conveyors stopping while others ran backward—was eliminated.

For local engineering companies, building a combined BB + AS solution into standard drawings makes it easier to explain safety margins and suitable operating conditions for each section during bidding and technical clarification. It avoids the “one model fits all” approach and improves overall line stability and customer confidence.