Conveyors

The conveyors or the transport systems can be installed on the floor but also can be suspended, depending on the needs of the applications for which they are designed, ordered and produced.

They can be used for products with weights from light and medium, to heavy, or palletized.

The belt conveyors are recommended in general for bulk or voluminous products, but also for the packed or boxed ones. They are also met in the luggage areas in airports, having, most probably, the widest range of applications. The belts are in general made from rubber, but they can be also from plastic, leather, textile material, metal.

The roller transporters can be electric or gravitational. They are mainly used in the distribution areas, luggage handling, assembly lines, production or logistics zones (loading/unloading).

The transport belts with wheels are suited for boxes with smooth and rigid base.

Chain conveyors are based on the same principle as the bicycle: the circular chain in installed on 2 wheels which are providing it a constant motion. They can have one or more chains. They are recommended for the heavy weighted or palletized products, and are used for the transfer systems. They are suited for the areas where are used oils or are many impurities.

A special category among the applications which can integrate the conveyors are the intralogistics shuttle systems. These are complex systems, being designed and developed with very much attention, because it is need to coordinate multiple activity points without involving any physical activities coming from the workers, and, also, the flow between them to be continuous. They can be installed in warehouses, storage areas, or production.

Regardless the conveyor model, they are made from a frame onto which is installed the transporting part made from belts, rolls, wheels or chains. The products are placed on the transporting part. The conveyors are operated manually-gravitationally, or electric when using motors (adjustable speed). The electric ones can have implemented the functionality to stop the collision of the products in the areas where they might accumulate, by using optical sensors which confirm the existence of the free areas before letting the next package go.

They are used in various industry zones, from distribution, logistics, production, to airports, picking or sorting areas (like, for example, the ones for waste, and many more).

Basically, this type of intralogistics system is composed of the machines needed to carry on the activities required by the application (boxes and crates dispensers, pallet magazines, palletizers, hydraulic platforms, equipment for packaging/stretch or shrink wrapping/stretch hoods/strapping, zones for weighting, labeling, scanning, picking from the storage areas and send to production, packaging, retail, etc.) which are interconnected through the conveyor lines, and supplied with shuttle vehicles. For each component separately, there can be integrated various of their models, so in the end to be obtained the desired results. For example, for the conveyor parts, they can integrate the horizontal versions, the vertical or transfer ones. Also, in a single system there can be multiple conveyor models, depending on the requirements of that specific sector (belt, rolls, wheels, etc.).

At floor level, the shuttle systems can interconnect more supplying lines with more dispatch lines for products, to make pallets or packages picking, according to the order requirements.

The shuttle systems can carry on many activities in the same time, and on more than one level, the entire system being programmed and equipped with sensors so there won’t be accumulations or incidents in the various activity points, and have continuous work flow, according to the requested work speed.

The main advantages of the shuttle lines are:

• space optimization also on vertical, not only on horizontal
• increased work speed and reduced or even zero errors (with operators, the human errors are in a higher number)
• increased productivity due to the automation itself, and also due to the system ingenuity which ensures the continuous interconnectivity of the involved equipment.

The conveyors can have zone which are straight/parallel with the floor, or can have sloping areas, depending on the available space or the needs of the applications, and can have also integrated various in-line equipment: strapping or packaging machines (hooding, stretch or shrink wrapping), pallet magazines, dispensers for boxes and crates, scanners, inspection cameras, weighting, labeling, packaging in multipacks, and many others.