Patent ID: 7651588

Claim:
A dewatering and thickening belt comprising an endless fabric woven by synthetic resin filaments, a bending-resistant element disposed at a selvage of the endless fabric, and a guide protrusion disposed at the salvage, wherein: the bending-resistant element has an inner end portion at an inner side end of the element and an outer end portion at an outer side end of the element, wherein the bending-resistant element is made of a polyurethane resin having a width of 30 mm or greater, measured in a width direction from the inner end portion to the outer end portion, and is attached to the fabric by filling the element into at least 85% of the space of the fabric at the selvage to form a bending-resistant portion; the guide protrusion is made of polyurethane resin having a width from an inner end portion on the central side, in a width direction, of the endless fabric to an outer end portion on the selvage side of the endless fabric; further wherein the guide protrusion is attached by fusion bonding to the bending-resistant portion so that the inner end portion of the guide protrusion is located outside the inner end portion of the bending-resistant element and the outer end portion of the guide protrusion is located at least Y (mm) inside an end portion of the fabric, the Y representing a value satisfying the following equation (1): Y = A · Δ ⁢ ⁢ L π ⁢ ⁢ L ( 1 ) wherein: Y is a length (mm) from the outer end portion of the guide protrusion to the fabric end portion and is greater than zero, L is a perimeter (mm) of the belt under no tension, 2 A is a length (mm) of a portion of the belt which is not in contact with two rolls when the belt is suspended on the rolls under no tension with substantially no slack between the belt and rolls, and ΔL is a stretch amount (mm) of the fabric constituting the belt.