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The Compact‑Grid conveyor belt is specifically engineered to handle smaller, more delicate products in food industry applications. Its unique grid pattern offers a 70% open area, providing exceptional air and liquid flow for efficient heating, cooling, and coating operations. Designed by Wire Belt Company and manufactured in both the UK and USA, this USDA‑accepted belt is easy to clean and is designed for clean‑in‑place systems—eliminating the need for belt removal and significantly reducing downtime during sanitation routines.
Compact‑Grid’s no‑slip positive drive ensures industry‑leading belt tracking, allowing it to run straight and true even under heavy loads.
Belt joining is fast and simple, making installation quick and minimising maintenance time. Unlike competitive welded belts, Compact‑Grid® contains no welds, enabling operators to replace or repair sections without special tools or extended downtime.
See our full line of conveyor belts here
Note: Widths are subject to the following manufacturing tolerances:-
282mm – 802mm: -0 + 4.75mm 822mm – 1302mm: -0 + 6.35mm 1302mm – 2122mm: -0 + 8.00mm 2122mm – 3662mm: -0 + 9.53mm
If you have an enquiry for an existing application click here
If you have an enquiry for a new application click here
Slim-Profile sprockets are designed to be a light weight and energy efficient method for driving Compact-Grid® conveyor belts. Slim-Profile sprockets have less mass than our 1 or 3-piece options. This means your conveyor won’t have to work as hard to keep your process moving.
Slim-Profile sprockets are easy to install and easy to clean on your conveyor. They come in a variety of materials such as stainless steel, polyacetal plastic, or high temperature PEEK material.
*Non-Extending flush tooth sprockets available on request please contact our Technical Sales Engineers **Standard sizes
Click here for Slim Profile Set-Up Guide
The 3-piece stacking drive set includes one tracking guide and two drive sprockets. The idler set includes one guide and two blanks. Various numbers of sets will be required across each shaft, and are determined by the belt width, belt length, and product loading. These sprockets are primarily used on heavier loads. If needed, the stackers are an excellent option for running the belt upside down where the tabs of the belt assist the product on a slight incline.
*Standard sizes
Click here for 3 Piece Stacking Set-Up Guide
Compact-Grid’s 1-piece sanitary drive sprockets are made with the highest of hygienic standards in mind. Their one piece design makes them easy to clean, giving debris from your process/application no where to hide.
The 1-piece sanitary design also gives your process the maximum in belt tracking and more consistent conveying under heavier, more demanding loads.
Please contact our Technical Sales Engineers for more information.
Standard: 1.4305 (303) stainless steel.
Options: POM, 316 Stainless
Other options by special request contact our Technical Sales Engineers
Compact-Grid® flights are designed to move product up an incline or down a decline. The width and height of the flight is easliy customised to accommodate many variations of products. The flight offers multiple fastening sites to assure integrity through the process.
Compact-Grid® flights are designed with through-holes and side vents to allow hygienic drainage and drying after cleaning and sanitising. Proven in field testing to outlast most belts, Compact-Grid® flights can easily replace many flighted plastic modular belts.
Please contact our Technical Sales Engineers for more information
“Here at Reading Bakery Systems, Compact-Grid® has been used with great success! We originally looked to Compact-Grid® for its open area since we use it in an oven application. Now we also look to this product because of its durability, how well it tracks, ease of installation and how quickly it splices together.” “We also appreciate the great service we get from Wire Belt Company of America, they stand behind their products and are happy to help you in any way that they can.”
“Here at Reading Bakery Systems, Compact-Grid® has been used with great success! We originally looked to Compact-Grid® for its open area since we use it in an oven application. Now we also look to this product because of its durability, how well it tracks, ease of installation and how quickly it splices together.”
“We also appreciate the great service we get from Wire Belt Company of America, they stand behind their products and are happy to help you in any way that they can.”
Rich Risser Mechanical Designer Reading Bakery Systems
Portland, Maine-based Barber Foods has long had a strong foothold in the retail market for portion-controlled chicken products. In fact, it was the first company to offer stuffed chicken entrées — most notably its Chicken Cordon Bleu and Chicken Kiev products. Ensuring uniformity in those products is a top priority, and losing breading on a conveyor belt means lost dollars and extra time spent on the third shift.
A breaking belt Barber Foods had been using a balanced weave belt on its batter applicator, where the product was secured between two belts and moved through the batter mixture, but the belt kept breaking. “I was changing wires on a daily basis,” says Jayson Hebert, manufacturing engineer at Barber Foods. And in addition to the annoyance of such continual maintenance, Herbert says the downtime was costing the company up to $2,000 to $3,000 per minute. The original belt’s thickness and belt mass also limited batter mixture flow through, creating excess batter carryout and coagulation of the crumb mixture in and around the belt. That coagulation often led to belt failure. Hebert knew it was time for a change. Enter Wire Belt’s Compact-Grid® . A new solution Flow through immediately improved. “I got better pick up because it allows batter to flow through,” Hebert says. “There’s not as much build up on the belt, and it’s much easier to clean.” In fact, Hebert says the stainless steel Compact-Grid® is very easy to sanitize because the belt has 70 percent open surface area, and is .20 inches thick, which helps circulate air and enhance drainage. The previous belt’s breakages were costing the company an extraordinary amount of money, so Herbert saw almost immediate payback on his investment. What’s more, in contrast to the previous belt, Hebert says that the new belt is very reliable, adding that it was in use for a “month and a half before there was a single break.” Universal appeal Hebert now has the Compact-Grid® on two lines and three different pieces of equipment — two batter machines and a transfer conveyor, which improves yield. Previously, Hebert was losing pieces of product because of the belt’s spacing. The Compact-Grid® has an openness of 10 mm x 10 mm (3/8 inch x 3/8 inch). Now chicken fingers and entrée products move smoothly and easily with little interruption and Herbert can run strip meat on the conveyor without worrying that the product will fall through. Everyone in the plant seems to be satisfied with the Compact-Grid’s performance. “It’s really easy to clean, so sanitation likes it. Production likes it because there are fewer product defects, and maintenance likes it because of its reliability,” Hebert says. “I plan to use this [belt again] in the future.” Wire Belt’s Compact-Grid® conveyor belt offers a cost effective solution to replacing hard to clean balanced weave and plastic modular belts. At Barber Foods we dramatically reduced batter carryout, maximizing product yield and minimizing product waste. The 70% open surface and lower belt mass offered Barber Foods better flow through, speeding up production!
A breaking belt
Barber Foods had been using a balanced weave belt on its batter applicator, where the product was secured between two belts and moved through the batter mixture, but the belt kept breaking. “I was changing wires on a daily basis,” says Jayson Hebert, manufacturing engineer at Barber Foods. And in addition to the annoyance of such continual maintenance, Herbert says the downtime was costing the company up to $2,000 to $3,000 per minute. The original belt’s thickness and belt mass also limited batter mixture flow through, creating excess batter carryout and coagulation of the crumb mixture in and around the belt. That coagulation often led to belt failure. Hebert knew it was time for a change. Enter Wire Belt’s Compact-Grid® .
A new solution Flow through immediately improved. “I got better pick up because it allows batter to flow through,” Hebert says. “There’s not as much build up on the belt, and it’s much easier to clean.” In fact, Hebert says the stainless steel Compact-Grid® is very easy to sanitize because the belt has 70 percent open surface area, and is .20 inches thick, which helps circulate air and enhance drainage.
The previous belt’s breakages were costing the company an extraordinary amount of money, so Herbert saw almost immediate payback on his investment. What’s more, in contrast to the previous belt, Hebert says that the new belt is very reliable, adding that it was in use for a “month and a half before there was a single break.”
Universal appeal Hebert now has the Compact-Grid® on two lines and three different pieces of equipment — two batter machines and a transfer conveyor, which improves yield. Previously, Hebert was losing pieces of product because of the belt’s spacing. The Compact-Grid® has an openness of 10 mm x 10 mm (3/8 inch x 3/8 inch). Now chicken fingers and entrée products move smoothly and easily with little interruption and Herbert can run strip meat on the conveyor without worrying that the product will fall through.
Everyone in the plant seems to be satisfied with the Compact-Grid’s performance. “It’s really easy to clean, so sanitation likes it. Production likes it because there are fewer product defects, and maintenance likes it because of its reliability,” Hebert says. “I plan to use this [belt again] in the future.”
Wire Belt’s Compact-Grid® conveyor belt offers a cost effective solution to replacing hard to clean balanced weave and plastic modular belts. At Barber Foods we dramatically reduced batter carryout, maximizing product yield and minimizing product waste. The 70% open surface and lower belt mass offered Barber Foods better flow through, speeding up production!
By Alicia Karapetian Poultry Magazine 6/1/2008
Better Baked Foods needed a small transfer conveyor with a small radius transfer point and a belt that would allow spices to be passed through for reclaim ability. In addition, the conveyor belt had to be clean in place, stainless, durable and easily replaceable. The North East, PA, – based baking company found its solution with Wire Belt Company of America, Londonderry, NH. The company’s Compact-Grid® belting is engineered specifically to handle smaller, delicate products while providing a lighter weight, open-mesh belt design. Moreover, the conveyor’s 70% open surface area gives optimal performance in processes where product coating, drainage and liquid/air circulation are factors. “It met all of our needs and the technical support was first rate. We only need a few feet so our purchase order was very small, but we were treated as if we had an order of $25,000,” says Sam Triscari, Project Engineer at Better Baked Foods. “This conveyor has been in almost continuous for close to 10 months at an average of 10 hours a day, five days a week, and has been operating just like it was put in yesterday.” The Compact-Grid® raises the bar to the next level for metal conveyors by offering efficiency, easy cleaning and durable performance, even in tight spaces.
Better Baked Foods needed a small transfer conveyor with a small radius transfer point and a belt that would allow spices to be passed through for reclaim ability. In addition, the conveyor belt had to be clean in place, stainless, durable and easily replaceable.
The North East, PA, – based baking company found its solution with Wire Belt Company of America, Londonderry, NH. The company’s Compact-Grid® belting is engineered specifically to handle smaller, delicate products while providing a lighter weight, open-mesh belt design. Moreover, the conveyor’s 70% open surface area gives optimal performance in processes where product coating, drainage and liquid/air circulation are factors.
“It met all of our needs and the technical support was first rate. We only need a few feet so our purchase order was very small, but we were treated as if we had an order of $25,000,” says Sam Triscari, Project Engineer at Better Baked Foods. “This conveyor has been in almost continuous for close to 10 months at an average of 10 hours a day, five days a week, and has been operating just like it was put in yesterday.”
The Compact-Grid® raises the bar to the next level for metal conveyors by offering efficiency, easy cleaning and durable performance, even in tight spaces.
Snackfood & Wholesale Bakery Magazine 8/13/2008
Wire Belt’s Compact-Grid® solved Sunrise Foods’ conveyor belt surge problem while enhancing its overall conveying system Sunrise Foods LLC, Albertville, AL a processor of value-added poultry products, was experiencing surge problems with a conveyor belt that enters and exits its IQF line. The company can run up to 4,000 lbs of IQF tenders and/or boneless breast an hour totaling up to 64,000 lbs a day on this belt. After reviewing its options, Sunrise chose the Compact-Grid® from Wire Belt Company of America, Londonderry, NH. “The previous belt’s weight was causing surging because it was long. Wire Belt was the only company offering a lighter belt in the weight category and length we wanted,” said Kevin Huff, Sunrise Foods’ Maintenance Manager. Compact-Grid® is Wire Belt’s newest conveyor belt innovation. It’s engineered specifically to handle smaller, delicate products, while giving processors a light-weight, open mesh belt design that can outperform many competitive offerings, Wire Belt says. The system’s rugged framework offers maximum strength under significant loads, lessening the time processors will spend on maintaining their conveying system and reducing the number of belt replacements over time. Installation on a plant conveying system is quick and easy. When the time arrives to replace a belt, Compact-Grid’s design allows processors to join or splice the belt on their conveyor by simply hooking the belt ends together and crimping to close. The belt is ideal for a cooking operation, such as a conveyorized fryer or an oven, as well as transferring a product directly onto a cooking line. Made of stainless steel, the Compact-Grid® won’t sweat, slip, droop or catch fire on a system like plastic conveyor belts can. It’s rugged, open design also makes it the perfect solution for cooling freshly baked or freshly fried products in high-volume, high throughput processes. Multiple advantages Advantages of the Compact-Grid® include: Lower belt mass offers increased efficiency Lighter weight than many comparable conveyor belt options Positive drive design eliminates expensive and heavy chain edged conveying configurations Low horsepower requirement means lower energy consumption in the drive systems More open areas provide optimum cleaning and sanitation. Its 70% open area makes Compact-Grid® easy to clean and keep clean. Its clean-in-place design means no clean-out-of-place tanks are required. And the belt doesn’t feature closed “link-barrels” like plastic modular belts or woven-wire helixes, such as balanced-weave wire belts. Equally important, there are no places for product particles to be trapped or for pathogens and allergens to hide. Its grid pattern is designed for optimal product support and it allows maximum flow through for superior convection. Wire Belt says the system is perfect for cooking applications like frying and baking and ideal for high-speed cooling and drying operation. Compact-Grid’s open design allows for excellent flow-through and drainage in coating operations. Designed with total cost in mind No expensive tracking systems are required for Compact-Grid® as are with friction-drive belts. And it offers a much tighter wrap capability than most friction-drive systems for improved conveyor-to-conveyor transfers minimizing chance of product yield loss in high-speed operations. The Compact-Grid® is built to outlast other types of conveyor belting in the medium-duty performance category. Improved convection capabilities optimize performance and energy consumption in cooking and cooling operations. Its simplified splicing operation speeds installations and replacements, reducing maintenance time and lowering labor costs. When asked what he likes best about the Compact-Grid®, Huff answers: “It’s compact, lightweight, east to work with and easy to clean and sanitize. And Wire Belt has been great in responding to our service needs.”
Wire Belt’s Compact-Grid® solved Sunrise Foods’ conveyor belt surge problem while enhancing its overall conveying system
Sunrise Foods LLC, Albertville, AL a processor of value-added poultry products, was experiencing surge problems with a conveyor belt that enters and exits its IQF line. The company can run up to 4,000 lbs of IQF tenders and/or boneless breast an hour totaling up to 64,000 lbs a day on this belt. After reviewing its options, Sunrise chose the Compact-Grid® from Wire Belt Company of America, Londonderry, NH.
“The previous belt’s weight was causing surging because it was long. Wire Belt was the only company offering a lighter belt in the weight category and length we wanted,” said Kevin Huff, Sunrise Foods’ Maintenance Manager.
Compact-Grid® is Wire Belt’s newest conveyor belt innovation. It’s engineered specifically to handle smaller, delicate products, while giving processors a light-weight, open mesh belt design that can outperform many competitive offerings, Wire Belt says. The system’s rugged framework offers maximum strength under significant loads, lessening the time processors will spend on maintaining their conveying system and reducing the number of belt replacements over time.
Installation on a plant conveying system is quick and easy. When the time arrives to replace a belt, Compact-Grid’s design allows processors to join or splice the belt on their conveyor by simply hooking the belt ends together and crimping to close.
The belt is ideal for a cooking operation, such as a conveyorized fryer or an oven, as well as transferring a product directly onto a cooking line. Made of stainless steel, the Compact-Grid® won’t sweat, slip, droop or catch fire on a system like plastic conveyor belts can. It’s rugged, open design also makes it the perfect solution for cooling freshly baked or freshly fried products in high-volume, high throughput processes.
Multiple advantages
More open areas provide optimum cleaning and sanitation. Its 70% open area makes Compact-Grid® easy to clean and keep clean. Its clean-in-place design means no clean-out-of-place tanks are required. And the belt doesn’t feature closed “link-barrels” like plastic modular belts or woven-wire helixes, such as balanced-weave wire belts. Equally important, there are no places for product particles to be trapped or for pathogens and allergens to hide.
Its grid pattern is designed for optimal product support and it allows maximum flow through for superior convection. Wire Belt says the system is perfect for cooking applications like frying and baking and ideal for high-speed cooling and drying operation. Compact-Grid’s open design allows for excellent flow-through and drainage in coating operations.
Designed with total cost in mind
No expensive tracking systems are required for Compact-Grid® as are with friction-drive belts. And it offers a much tighter wrap capability than most friction-drive systems for improved conveyor-to-conveyor transfers minimizing chance of product yield loss in high-speed operations.
The Compact-Grid® is built to outlast other types of conveyor belting in the medium-duty performance category. Improved convection capabilities optimize performance and energy consumption in cooking and cooling operations. Its simplified splicing operation speeds installations and replacements, reducing maintenance time and lowering labor costs.
When asked what he likes best about the Compact-Grid®, Huff answers: “It’s compact, lightweight, east to work with and easy to clean and sanitize. And Wire Belt has been great in responding to our service needs.”
Meat & Poultry Magazine April 2008
Compact-Grid conveyor belt is a stainless steel belt used primarily in the food industry for applications such as, cooking, cooling, draining, enrobing and freezing. Compact-Grid is one of Wire Belt’s newest innovations, manufactured in the UK and USA, it was designed specifically to handle smaller, delicate products whilst giving our customers a lighter weight, open mesh belt design. It has been used for bakery, poultry, meat, snacks and confectionery products.
With Compact-Grid®, the time it takes to heat or cool a product will be significantly reduced, due to its great flow-through capabilities. This will reduce your energy consumption and improve efficiency. Its 70% open surface area means it has an optimal performance for processes involving coating, drainage, and liquid or air circulation.
We have performed tests on Compact-Grid® which have shown that it has five times less resistance to flow-through than most plastic modular belts. This gives Compact-Grid® the benefit of optimum performance in drying and cooling processes.
Made of stainless steel Compact-Grid®, will not slip, droop or catch fire on a system, unlike some plastic conveyor belts. Compact-Grid® is the best solution for cooling products in high volume, high throughput environment.
Compact-Grid’s light weight design solved a customer’s belt surge problems; the previous belts weight was causing surging because it was so long. Wire Belt were the only company to offer a lighter belt for the application. By replacing the belt with Compact-Grid stopped the surging entering and exiting their individual quick freezing line. This in turn reduced their unplanned and planned downtime.
Compact-Grid has been used for both food, such as snack foods, meat products, biscuits, vegetables and poultry products and non-food applications, such as parts washers for corrugated cardboard and circular knives, and in ovens to heat automotive parts. The belt has a 10 x 10mm nominal square opening designed to handle small and delicate products. The tight mesh of the belt allows for optimal product support and can handle heavy loads. A customer using the belt for a chicken battering application found that Compact-Grid aided production of quality products causing fewer defects than other mesh belting during the battering process.
Use of Compact-Grid stainless steel belting instead of plastic modular types can increase food conveyor hygiene standards by at least 10 times, and in some cases by more than 100 times, especially in high-usage and difficult to clean areas.
Compact-Grid has more open area providing effective cleaning where hygiene and ease of sanitation are important especially in areas where accessibility and extended production runs present cleaning problems. Typically, it does not need to be removed from the conveyor system for cleaning; its openness allows visual inspection of drive shafts without the need for dismantling, eliminating the need for clean out of place tanks and reducing maintenance downtime. We offer sanitation guidelines in the help centre of our website.
Our customers have to meet stringent industry standards and look to us to be able to provide a product that will meet those standards; Compact-Grid fulfils those needs and has USDA approval. A customer installed Compact-Grid to eliminate the difficulty in cleaning. They process bread and the consistency of the dough was very soft and the previous plastic belt allowed the dough to seep into the belt, maintenance had to remove the belt nightly in order to properly clean the belt, by replacing it with Compact-Grid eliminated this lengthy procedure.
Installation of Compact-Grid on a conveying system is quick and easy. When the time arrives to replace a belt, Compact-Grid’s design allows processors to join or splice the belt on their conveyor by simply hooking the belt ends together and crimping to close. Its simplified splicing operations, speeds installation and replacements, reducing maintenance time and lowering labour costs.
Compact‑Grid® conveyor belting is manufactured in a single, precision‑engineered mesh size of 10mm pitch that has been specifically designed for optimal product support, high open area and superior cleanability.
Unlike traditional wire mesh belts that come in multiple mesh configurations, Compact‑Grid uses a unique, tightly‑spaced pattern that delivers the ideal balance of strength, hygiene, and flow‑through performance for food processing applications.
Because the mesh size has been optimised through testing and industry use, manufacturers benefit from a consistent, reliable, hygienic belting solution that performs across a wide range of processes — without needing multiple mesh options.
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