Through any twist and turn it can face through the process, product has to stay put on the belt.
Much like a bakery, keeping those little soldiers in line isn’t exactly a straight-forward operation. Between twists, turns and transfers, problems — and solutions — can be found in any direction.
In some applications, products may start on a wider conveyor and then separate for finishings such as a coating. “In that case, a conveyor will need to separate those products into two separate lines,” Mr. Milner said.
ABI recognized that changing directions on a line is common where space is an issue or where a bakery has a common element for multiple lines, such as an oven that is fed from multiple processing lines that have to navigate several turns before reaching that central element.
“Any time you have a change of direction, you have to be cognizant of the speed at which the product arrives because it will have to change direction when it gets there,” Mr. Renaud noted. “You have to make sure product isn’t bumping around, rolling over or losing its position because it’s going through too quickly.”
Through any twist and turn it can face through the process, product has to stay put on the belt. That was the motivation for Capway Automation when it developed its iDrive system with Intralox. “Any way you look at it, conveyors have to go around turns,” Mr. Harrington said. And with each turn comes a collapse and opening of the belt. “The nice part about our iDrive system is that you can have a 500-ft-long conveyor with no transfers — it’s one continuous conveyor, from one into the other — so the transfer stays in that position until the end. It goes through twists and turns, going up and down, but you’ve maximized the transfers.”
Click through to read more about conveyor transfer points.
