Comparison between overlap and endless tracks

In recent years, some unfaithful advertisements about rubber tracks from some sellers and manufacturers are appearing. Many of our customers are confused and call us for the true pictures

To help our customers understand better and make the correct choice when buying a rubber track, we have some explanations and analizations below which is based on these advertisements

Since the first agriculture rubber track was produced in Japan during the 1960's, the most popular and well accepted track is the overlap type.

This type of rubber track manufacturing technology is widely used in Japan, China, Korea and Europe.

The endless type was started by an Italian manufacturer in the 1990's, with the rubber track being made by one molding and vulcanization process but no joint in the wires and rubber. This process is exactly the same for manufacturing tyres. Theoretically, the quality of track made with this process should be reliable.

However, because of the difficulties in molding, insufficient pressure on the track during vulcanization and the difficulties to change links, this endless type was frequently returned back due to its quality problem and towards the end of the 1990's was disappearing from the market

More recently, the endless type production is appearing in some Chinese manufacturers with a totally different way of manufacturing from the Italians

They are now made by simple and low quality molding equipment with 4 to 6 stages to complete the vulcanization process. In fact it should be called "Wire endless but staged vulcanization track"

Its cheap price and over exaggerated advertisement causes confusion in the rubber track market, and leaves many people waiting for the true picture of these two types of rubber tracks

Here we give our professional explanation as a suggestion to the rubber track user.

If endless has a 40% higher tension strength than overlap

The tensile strength of the rubber track is decided by diameter and the number of the wires placed inside of its body. The theoretical tensile strength of the rubber track as a whole is decided by the strength of the of single wire and total number of it. Given this it is pointless to say that the endless type has 40% higher strength. It is also impossible to reach this high strength. Further more, as limited by the under developed equipment, the differences in length and strength of each winding of the wire are so obvious that the overall strength of rubber track are greatly reduced. On top of this, the steel wire and rubber on the endless type are simply put together by hand, resulting in less accuracy of construction which as a result could cause the wire to probe out of the rubber during use. The overlap track is constructed by integrating the steel wire and rubber through a high pressure process on a special producing line, which guarantee the very slight differences in tensile strength among wires and the rubber track length of the wire could be easily controlled by adjusting the joint length

Our supplier is currently working closely with the worlds major Japanese rubber track manufacturer in rubber track development with a long term technical cooperation contract. Together, they have done many tensile strength tests with the rubber tracks, none of which have shown the broken part at the joint. This gives strong evidence that the strength at the joint of the overlap rubber track is strong enough.

Given the above analysis, it should be easy to tell that the overlap rubber track has more advantages than the endless type

If the wire in endless track is stainless

The steel wire found inside rubber tracks is usually zinc plated or copper plated. These types of coatings are not designed to have anti-rust protection. Instead, they are designed to have better adhering strength with the rubber and the quality of the rubber is guaranteed by this binding strength between steel wire and rubber.

However, in practice, if the rubber track is damaged and steel wire is exposed, the strength of the steel wire could be reduced. This is caused by rusting wire and will result in early track damage. It is suggested to be careful and to avoid damage to the track and be cautious when told about stainless wire

Rubber track lug patterns

The performance and lifetime of a rubber track lug patterns has nothing to do with the type of rubber track manufacturing. It is designed and used by different machines and applications

Rubber compound and the elements which decide the rubber track quality

Rubber compound is a decisive factor in making the rubber track and natural rubber is the most decisive raw material of all. Currently, the price of natural rubber is raising tremendously and its supply in the market is in shortening. Our supplier has advantages in natural rubber purchasing, and guarantee the quality of their products. They also guarantee that the quality of the natural rubber will never be compromised to cope with cost increase

In addition to this, the endless type has a different vulcanizing process from the overlap type. The endless type has at least 4 rubber joints, and on some larger sizes there are 6 joints. The overlap type has only 2 joints, with the largest track having only 3 joints in the vulcanizing process.

Our supplier is the first rubber track manufacturer in China, with over 28 Years history. With rich technology, manufacturing experience, and advanced facilities they produce 150,000 rubber tracks in over a hundred different sizes per year.

Back to Tracks - Products -Main Menu