Dunlop Conveyor Belting announce major new investments

Company plans to increase production capacity and add new product to its range of rubber multi-ply belting 

At a time of global economic uncertainty, Netherlands-based Dunlop Conveyor Belting are bucking the trend by making the biggest single investment in their history. The new investments, totalling some €6.4 million, are designed to increase current capacity as well as adding a brand new product to its already comprehensive range of rubber multi-ply belting.

The first phase, costing some €2.5 million, is the addition of a new, 12m long ‘double-daylight’ press, which will produce rolls of up to 4m in diameter (20 tonnes) at a width of up to 1400mm. According to Dunlop, the press will be at least twice as efficient as current presses. 

‘We urgently need to improve our capacity to keep up with customer demand, particularly our ability to make more 800 to 1400mm wide belts,’ explained Michiel Eijpe, director of production. ‘Increasing capacity also means that we can further reduce lead times for our customers, which will give us yet another edge over our competitors’.

The second part of the programme is an investment of €3.9 million to build a new, 100m long production hall on the existing site, which will be used to produce steelcord belting for the first time ever in Holland. Production is expected to begin early next year. Currently, supplies of steelcord belting for Dunlop’s existing customers have largely been produced by Fenner USA.  

At the same time, Dunlop continue to expand their network of Dunlop service centres, which provide a 24/7/365 belt fitting service. Having already successfully established centres in Holland, Spain, Poland, Morocco and two (Bergamo and Sicily) in Italy, Dunlop have recently opened another service centre in Tenerife in the Canary Islands. 

Stand: 17F58