Custom Conveyor & Equipment Corporation designs and builds custom conveyor systems and material handling equipment at our facility on Capital Drive SW in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. We engineer, fabricate, assemble and test equipment under one roof, then ship it to manufacturers across Eastern Iowa, the Midwest and beyond. The region’s mix of manufacturing, food production and agriculture reflects much of what we build.
Founded in 1984, Custom Conveyor has produced thousands of specialty conveyors and industrial automation machines for customers ranging from Fortune 500 companies to mom-and-pop manufacturers. If your plant is in Cedar Rapids, Iowa City or elsewhere in the Corridor, the engineers who design your system are a short drive away.
Talk to a Cedar Rapids conveyor engineer
Tell us what needs to move, where it starts and where it has to go. We offer on-site or remote engineering consultations to define the need before anything is designed.
Our Cedar Rapids Facility
In 2021 we moved into a new building in Cedar Rapids, tripling our production capacity. Design, fabrication and assembly happen in the same facility, and our engineers, designers, fabricators and assemblers work in concert with a strong network of suppliers to bring each system together.
Engineering and Fabrication Under One Roof
Each capability sits a short walk from where your system is designed.
Engineering: Design work happens in the same building as fabrication. Our engineers can model or draw parts from a concept, prep files for laser cutting, check fit-up on the floor and watch equipment run before it ships.
Laser cutting: A 3kW fiber laser cuts sheet up to 6 ft x 12 ft for structural components, mounting brackets, wear plates and other precision parts.
Forming: A 12 ft, 300-ton press brake forms channels, frame members and panels to a general bending tolerance of ±1 degree, which supports consistent fit-up where frame alignment affects belt tracking.
Welding: Carbon steel (MIG, pulse MIG and TIG), stainless steel (pulse MIG and TIG) and aluminum (TIG), covering everything from heavy industrial frames to stainless sanitary equipment.
Assembly and testing: Mechanical assembly, wiring and electrical testing are done in-house. Our engineers and fabricators perform validation runs and real-world optimization tests before shipment, while the design is still easy to modify.
The same equipment and people are available for contract fabrication of customers’ own products, whether that’s a one-off part, a short run or long-term production.
Custom Conveyor at a Glance
The basics for anyone evaluating conveyor builders in Eastern Iowa.
Company facts
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Custom Conveyor & Equipment Corporation, founded in 1984 by Steve Harmon, a long-time power transmission professional
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1220 Capital Dr. SW, BLDG 2, Cedar Rapids, IA 52404
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Phone (319) 449-3322 or email sales@customconveyor.com
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New building in 2021 tripled production capacity; design, fabrication and assembly in one facility
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Over 40 years building mechanical and fully automated machines across many industries
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Built to your print or engineered from your concept
Serving Eastern Iowa and the Corridor
Being based in Eastern Iowa makes it practical to start a project with the people who will design your system looking at the actual problem on your floor.
On-site or remote consultations. An on-site visit lets us see space constraints, existing equipment interfaces, floor conditions and the realities that photos and floor plans miss. We also help gather the data needed to validate a concept.
Work the way you want. Some customers bring a finished design for us to build, test and deliver; most bring a question. Either way, we work with your engineering, maintenance or operations staff through each step of our custom process.
Support for as long as you own it. We supply custom-made replacement parts for the equipment we build and support it for as long as you own it.
Regional Industries We Serve
These are the Eastern Iowa industries where our project history is strongest.
Food Production and Processing
Food producers need simple, reliable conveyors that follow sanitary design best practices and minimize loss. Our food production work includes a 40 ft stainless modular belt conveyor that serves as the backbone of a meat processing line, a stainless wire mesh bakery cooling conveyor and a washdown-capable modular plastic belt incline.
Manufacturing and Metal Fabrication
Machine shops and fabricators generate chips and scrap and move heavy parts between operations. We’ve built a magnetic chip conveyor that keeps its moving parts out of fine shavings, steel hinged belt conveyors for machining pits and laser scrap, pallet pop-up transfers and a turntable for pallets up to 3,000 lb.
Agriculture
Our agricultural work centers on lightweight, compact conveyance for mobile platforms, such as a compact aluminum ag conveyor that runs from the vehicle’s 24VDC bus. We also build production runs, prototypes for new concepts, and machines that process and separate materials.
Glass Processing
Handling waste glass is one of our specialties. Glass breakers convert scrap from breakout tables into cullet that belt conveyors carry away, in systems that range from a single above-floor table to plant-wide below-grade layouts. See our cullet handling systems.
Distribution and Warehousing
For shipping departments, warehouses and distribution centers, we build custom live roller, chain and belt conveyors, turntables and vertical lifts for moving cases or pallets, and we help develop the layout for the flow you need.
Beyond Eastern Iowa
Eastern Iowa is home, but our equipment runs well beyond it. We build for customers around the world, and projects outside the region follow the same process: we gather the facility data through on-site or remote consultations, engineer the solution, and fabricate, assemble and validate it in Cedar Rapids before it ships.
Why Our Location Matters
Keeping design, fabrication and assembly in one Cedar Rapids facility gives us control over quality and flexibility in our timelines. When a validation run shows that something should change, engineers and fabricators make the change in our shop, not after the system arrives at your plant.
For Eastern Iowa manufacturers, being nearby also means you can stop by our office to talk through a project in person.
Cedar Rapids Conveyor Manufacturing FAQs
Common questions from Eastern Iowa manufacturers.
Related Resources
Explore related pages from Custom Conveyor.
Industries:Manufacturing Food Production Agriculture Glass Processing Warehouse & Distribution
Equipment:Conveyor Systems Material Handling Equipment Transfer Equipment
Project examples:Cullet Handling System Automation Support System Sanitary Protein Conveyor Mobile Ag Conveyor
Guides:What is a Custom Conveyor System? A Complete Guide How to Spec a Conveyor System
Other service areas:Custom Conveyors for Des Moines & Central Iowa Manufacturers Custom Conveyors for Waterloo & the Cedar Valley
Start a project with our Cedar Rapids team
Tell us what you need to move and where. Our engineers will help define the need, engineer a solution and build it in the same facility where it was designed.