Peter MacLeod speak to an expert about how belting technology is evolving under pressure from energy costs, sustainability targets and shifting investment patterns.
The past few years have tested the logistics sector, particularly in Europe. Pointing to geopolitical instability, economic uncertainty and reduced investment by major players, Sascha Goly, Global Business Development Manager at Forbo Movement Systems, says: “Especially in the last three or four years, it was not easy. It was difficult years.”
Speaking exclusively to Logistics Business, he adds: “The big companies were not investing at all, especially Amazon. They were going to the sky during Covid, and after Covid, since all the normal stores are opening again, they were not investing that much.” While this slowdown affected suppliers across the industry, Forbo’s diversified presence in food processing and industrial production helped to cushion the impact.
Despite this, Goly is clear that momentum is returning. “We see light at the end of the tunnel,” he said. E-commerce and parcel logistics are beginning to ramp up again, with companies such as FedEx, UPS, DHL and Amazon re-entering the tendering process, albeit at a more measured pace than during the pandemic. Airports, however, represent the most dynamic growth opportunity. While Europe remains relatively quiet, Goly highlighted strong expansion in Asia-Pacific and the Americas. “India and China are building new airports. Singapore will build a new Terminal 5 at Changi Airport. A lot of things are going on, and we really see that this is something that is growing really fast.”
Belting by Sector
Airport projects also illustrate how belting requirements vary by sector. In conventional parcel logistics, suppliers typically engage directly with end users and OEMs. Aviation is more complex. “You have many more parties involved – consultants, engineering companies, sometimes even local governments,” Goly explained. Products must also meet specific regulatory requirements, including flame retardancy and fire safety standards, making the sales and specification process more involved.
Forbo’s position as a global supplier is central to its ability to serve multinational customers:
“If you would like to do business with global key customers – like the big parcel companies, like airports, like all the OEMs – they would like to work together with a real international, global company. Those companies are also global, and they would like to have contacts all around the world.”
For Goly, it is the combination of global reach, long-term relationships and innovation that customers now expect as standard.
When it comes to innovation, sustainability has become the dominant theme. “The main innovation factor is sustainable products,” Goly said, noting that large end users face increasingly strict carbon reduction roadmaps. Forbo’s energy-saving belts have emerged as a key differentiator. “These energy-saving belts are really saving energy costs on the one side, but also they are reducing the CO₂ amount that is going on in a baggage handling system of an airport, for example.”
Crucially, these claims are not left unquantified. Goly described how customers are increasingly demanding clear ROI evidence. “We have a calculator on our website where you can type in the length, the speed of conveyor, the hours of running per day, and it easily displays the savings of CO₂ and also the savings in money, always compared with a standard belt.” He added that Forbo is the only belting supplier with third-party certification verifying both the calculations and the performance of the belts. “This has been certified from the German TÜV, so this is not just greenwashing or a nice marketing thing.”
Reduced Friction
Energy efficiency also translates into operational benefits beyond electricity bills. Reduced friction lowers wear on belts, bearings and motors, extending the lifespan of entire conveyor systems. “We have examples where the temperature was sometimes going down from 65 to 40°C just by using an energy-saving belt,” Goly said. “If you have a system with thousands of motors, and every motor is reduced by 10 or 20 degrees, you can even reduce the power of the air conditioning. All of that is increasing the lifetime of the complete conveyor systems.”
The technology itself is more sophisticated than many assume. While Goly, Pictured below, jokingly described a belt as “a piece of plastic”, he was quick to explain the science behind the performance. “The secret lies in the underside of the belt,” he said. By integrating a permanent lubricant into the belt fabric during manufacturing, friction is reduced over the entire lifetime of the belt. “It stays there over the lifetime of the belt. Even when the belt was running for eight or nine years, it still feels a little bit slippery.”
Looking ahead, Goly sees smart belting and predictive maintenance as the next frontier, though he is realistic about current limitations. “Customers would love to have it, but we are not at the phase where we can say we already have it.” Early steps include QR codes laser-marked onto belts, allowing technicians to access product data, order replacements and contact service teams instantly, reducing downtime and unnecessary site visits.
Regional differences remain relatively minor, according to Goly, with specifications largely consistent worldwide. Cost sensitivity is higher in Asia-Pacific, while North America places less emphasis on environmental considerations, though this may change. “In general, a belt stays a belt. It doesn’t matter on which continent it is.”
Perhaps the biggest misconception Goly encounters is price-focused procurement. “If you buy cheap, you buy twice,” he said. In the context of billion-pound infrastructure projects, belting represents a small fraction of total investment, yet it has an outsized impact on energy use, uptime and lifetime costs. To address this, Forbo has produced a white paper on energy-efficient package handling, including ROI calculations aimed at shifting conversations beyond initial purchase price.
As energy costs remain volatile and sustainability targets tighten, Goly believes the industry is finally catching up with ideas Forbo has been developing for more than a decade. “Now everyone is looking at saving more energy,” he said. “And that’s where we are in a very, very good position.”
