Mars Supply | Conveyor Belt Services

Conveyor Belt Service (CBS) was established as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the W.P. & R.S. Mars Company in 1953. Over the last 70 years, both CBS and Mars have been partnered with the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company Industrial Products Division (now Continental) supplying both first-class belting and installation services to wide variety of conveyor users. Our customer base includes the taconite mines on the Iron Range in Northern MN and in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. CBS also does a substantial amount of belt installation and splicing work for dock terminals, Great Lakes cargo-carrying vessels, wood products manufacturing facilities and coal-fired power plants. Although our geographic niche is the Upper Midwest, we have done belt work all over the United States.

Safety is the #1 core value at CBS. Our belt technicians make every effort to not only get the job done with quality and speed in mind, but also with safety at the forefront. Other services CBS provides include belt slitting, mechanical splicing, custom-cut rubber parts, and making splice kits. We also carry a large inventory of used belting. Additionally, we manage a $4 million belt inventory for our parent company, Mars Supply.

Our key services include belt installation, belt splicing and belt repair. Additionally, we are an authorized distributor of Continental’s ContiTech product line.

THE BIG PUCK

When Bob Mars heard that the city of Eveleth, MN was having Christian Bros. build a Guinness Record breaking hockey stick to promote the city and its rich hockey history, he visited with the city and asked them if they would like a puck to go with the stick. Of course, they said, YES! Bob brought the proposal to CBS and we were ecstatic for the challenge to create the puck. First, we researched the possibility of also breaking a Guinness Book record. However, with hours of thought and calculations, it was determined that we could not successfully break the record. So, it was back to the drawing board to figure out a way to create a puck-to-scale that would represent all parties properly.

Diameter: 5’ | Height: 20” | Weight: 700 lbs

The puck was built to the exact scale as the original Big Stick. Unfortunately, it could not be constructed out of all rubber like a real puck. The inside has a metal frame work structure to allow for mounting and give it the rigidity required for kids to climb on it, etc. To duplicate the perfectly smooth top and bottom, we used new 6-ply conveyor belting with a 3/8” top cover. The edge of the puck is 1/2” pure rubber that was wrapped with wedge-grip belting during the vulcanizing process to create the texture on the edge of a real puck. The Nelson-Williams Company was enlisted to assist in the process. Their autoclave was large enough to cure the rubber to the steel structure.