Some cradle designs seek to combine the benefits of bars and rollers, implementing a hybrid “combination cradle.” These systems use bars along the side to provide a continuous seal at the belt edge, but also incorporate rollers under the center of the belt to provide less resistance in moving the belt.
Because of the majority of the weight will be placed upon the rollers under the center of the belt, these conveyor systems are able to reduce their total power consumption. However, the flat surface of the bars limit spillage, which has the added advantage of reducing the amount of dust and spillage exposed to the central rollers, helping to improve their performance and reduce maintenance costs.
These designs are mostly commonly seen on high-speed conveyors operating above 3.8 meters per second, or around 750 feet per minute, or applications where there is a heavy material load that would create high levels of friction in the center of the conveyor.
A different type of hybrid cradle reverses this arrangement, using impact bars below the center of the conveyor belt to absorb the energy from heavier falling materials while reducing the overall energy consumption using rollers along the wings.
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