Transport Equipment (l) - Conveyors

The first material handling equipment(MHE) we are going to touch on is Conveyors, which facilitates transportation in material handling.

What is conveyors?
By looking at the following video, I'm sure you will know what it is immediately.



Yes, the long black belt where you can see in most sushi restaurant, that carries plates and plates of sushi around the restaurant is an example of conveyor.

History of Conveyor:
Conveyor belts was used since 1901 and was invented by Sandvik and production of Steel Conveyor Belts started. It was being introduced by Henry Ford in 1913 as conveyor belt-based assembly-line in Ford Motor Company's factory production.



What are the characteristic of conveyors?

• High throughput
• Low power usage but high equipment cost
• Manning required
• Exclusive usage from other systems
• For intermittent or continuous movement
• Easy to control flows & fast response
• Suitable for fixed routes
• Can obstruct other flows & activities
  

Conveyor safety
When it comes to any electronic or mechanic devices, safety issues should be taken seriously:




Although this rule is common sense, people still disobey this rule and there are injuries and equipment damages every year.








There are technicians who are too confident in their ability without knowing power is connected and causing injuries.





Conveyors controls is more than just an on/off switches. Therefore, these control should never modified unnecessary reason. It is important to monitor the various controls making sure no one misused, modified, or disconnected them.



Others safety rules include:

There are actually many different types of conveyors like belt, overhead, screw, slat, roller, apron, chain, monorail, bucket etc. Now, i will focus on two types of conveyors which are widely used in the industry.

Belt Conveyors:

The video above on the sushi is an example of belt conveyors. Belt conveyors is a continuous moving belt that carries materials or packages from one place to another and consists of two pulleys. It can be used for light, medium and even heavy duty work.

Belt conveyors are the most commonly used bulk handling conveyors in history due to their reliability, versatility, and range of capacities. Materials from fine powders to large, lumpy stones can be handled on a belt conveyor.

Advantages of belt conveyor :

• Lower labor cost than alternative means of transportation
• Conveying a variety of materials
• Wide range of capacities
• Adaptability of path including terrain
• Steep angle conveying
• Flexible loading and discharging of materials
• Reduced environmental impact, air and noise pollution
• Lower energy costs than alternative means of transportation
• Safety, thanks to minimal manual interfaces required
• Reliability, that comes with the simplicity of fewer moving parts than other conveyor systems
• Organize material work-flow
• Reduce storage cart movement
• Minimize operator fatigue

Disadvantages of Belt Conveyors:

• Operate on incline only to about 28°
• High initial cost
• May need protection from weather
• If the material is sticky, belt cleaning can be difficult and generally not very successful.

Overhead Conveyors:

Overhead conveyors provide continuous movement of materials overhead, as opposed to standard floor conveying systems. Overhead conveyors save space and are common for moving materials around an industrial facility. These conveyors are often used to sort, distribute, and buffer while maximizing space.

Types of Conveyors

The main types of overhead conveyors include automated electrified monorail (AEM) conveyors, enclosed track conveyors, and overhead chain conveyors.

Areas of Application for Overhead conveyors :

Overhead conveyors have many applications in manufacturing and distributing industries, such as in painting (electrostatic, dip and powder coating, spraying, etc.), parts cleaning, industrial ovens, transporting materials between facilities or workstations, and materials storage. Overhead conveyors provide a space-saving and economical solution for conveying needs.

Advantages of Overhead Conveyors :

The advantages of overhead conveyors is that it can help to maximise space as the overhead conveyor becomes a live store, which via vertical bends, can be routed into roof space, which would otherwise be non productive. Similar benefits could be at the production line when space for storage may also be at a premium. Other benefits may be the elimination of internal transport, such as fork truck or manually pushed trolleys.