A typical vertical conveyor system consists of a special belt suspended vertically in the production shaft. The heart of this innovative system is the steel cord FLEXOWELL® or POCKETLIFT® belt. Loaded at the bottom of the shaft, corrugated sidewalls and shaped cleats for the FLEXOWELL® system carry the material vertically to the surface, where the material is discharged. The belt is manufactured with a cross-rigid construction necessary for vertical applications. The POCKETLIFT® system uses molded pockets suspended between two strands of steelcord belting to carry the material from the underground to the discharge point. In addition, all FKC-Lake Shore / Metso Minerals (Moers) GmbH FLEXOWELL® belts are designed with a minimum 10-1 safety factor. The belt itself requires a very small area, leaving room for a cage or an elevator system in a larger shaft or the major portion of the shaft can be left clear to accommodate large pieces of equipment slung from a crane. In cases where the desired direction of discharge at the surface differs from the angle of the tunnel, the belt can be twisted up to 180 degrees inside the production shaft.

Installation and system removal can be provided on a turn-key basis, and if a system is to be moved from one project to another, FKC-Lake Shore provides splicing services to adjust the belt length.