A belt joint is formed by a pair of U-shaped clips joined to respective belt ends and has interleaved bights and a rod extending along an axis through the interleaved bights of the clips to connect the belt ends together. The clips are provided inside the bights in contact with the rod with a lining of a low-friction material. This lining can be a metal alloy, for instance one containing copper such as bronze. Alternately it can be a plastic, for instance polytetrafluorethylene.

A pintle unit and method of closing a seam in a papermakers felt which provides a tight closure along the full length of the seam. The seam is closed with a pintle unit made up of a plurality of pintle elements which are tapered and pulled into the seam to interact in a wedging fashion. The pintle elements are tapered for a length at least as long as the width of the seam so that when wedged in the seam a pintle unit of substantially uniform size across the full width of the felt is provided.

A connector for conveyor belts and the like includes a plurality of connection elements disposed in a side-by-side relationship to extend across the end edge of an associated belt. Each of the connection elements includes outwardly disposed shank portions with free ends shaped for insertion into the opposite faces of the belt, and inwardly disposed loop-shaped center portions arranged to mesh with a like connector on the opposite end of the belt. A generally flat cover element has a central aperture through which the center portions of the connection elements are inserted, and is deformable for folding the cover element over the end edge of the belt and onto the opposite faces of the belt to cover the shank portions of the connection elements on both sides of the belt.