The Role of Conveyors in Material Handling

Categorizing conveyors can be a linguistic nightmare, with so many terms being used interchangeably and in reference to different aspects of a conveyor’s overall design.  To help bring clarity to the discussion, we’ll sort conveyor nomenclature into the following groups, chosen to match up with their engineering details and how a buyer would go about the process of specifying a new conveyor:

1. Application Specification – when selecting conveyors, the typical starting point is on the application type or specification, which describes the expected environment, strength, durability, and other features of the application that the conveyor must support.  Determining the specification up front also serves to limit all of the below choices to only those acceptable to the job being performed. In material handling, typically this translates to conveyors made of steel or aluminum, painted finish, 480VAC three-phase motor power, and various safety features.
   
   
2. Surface Types – next, we select the desired surface type, which is mostly a function of what material the conveyor will transport.
   
   
3. Power Type – third, we select the motive power type and drive details.
   
   
4. Installation Scheme – we’ll next select the installation scheme for our new conveyor, describing how the conveyor is to be supported and secured.
   
   
5. Conveyor Styles – lastly, we’ll choose the style of conveyor to meet our application’s needs (which are usually made up of multiple styles built into a larger system.

There are many more details that are usually covered in conveyance projects, but the above list captures the basics of comparing conveyor design features across the main categories of decisions needed to fully specify a solution.

While we’re only covering the mechanical details of conveyor selection in this article, it’s worth noting that buyers must also consider what electrical and automation components will be needed to operate the conveyor. Will a manual On/Off switch be sufficient, or will some level of automation and safety control be needed? Make sure to continue this discussion with your supplier before purchasing, as it may impact the specifications selected above.

Conveyor Power Types

Categorizing conveyors can be a linguistic nightmare, with so many terms being used interchangeably and in reference to different aspects of a conveyor’s overall design.  To help bring clarity to the discussion, we’ll sort conveyor nomenclature into the following groups, chosen to match up with their engineering details and how a buyer would go about the process of specifying a new conveyor:

1. Powered Conveyor - a powered conveyor utilizes an electric motor or hydraulic drive to provide the motive force needed to transport materials. Users may also see the term “live” in reference to powered conveyors, such as with “live roller conveyors”. Buyers will have more details to discuss when selecting a powered conveyor, such as motor sizing, electrical specifications, motor rating, drive type (belt, chain, etc), and more.
2. Gravity Conveyor – compared to a powered conveyor, a gravity conveyor is extremely simple, as it relies on the force of gravity (or human force) to convey materials from end to end. Typically, conveyors designed as gravity-powered are used for declines, straight runs pushed forward by upstream powered conveyors, and infeed/outfeed segments where operators benefit from the safety of non-powered conveyors.

Material Handling Conveyor Styles

For our final step in selecting mechanical conveyors, we’ll choose the conveyor style needed. Complete conveyor systems are built by combining multiple styles together, and it’s entirely plausible that many different styles, surface types, power types, and other variances all end up within a single system.

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  Straight Conveyor

  Simply put, the Straight Conveyor styles describes a rigid, straight frame conveyor segment that is available in all surface types, power types, and mounting scheme. Straight Conveyor segments are the most basic building block used in complete conveyance systems.
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  Corner Conveyor

  Free-Standing Installation places conveyor segments up on legs, posts, or stands, positioning products at working height where employees can interact with the materials being conveyed. Legged Conveyors also allow for improved cleanability and maintenance access, but may also require structural anchorage considerations since they’ll be top-heavy when in operation.
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  Flexible/Extendable Conveyor

  Flex Conveyors are unique conveyor styles that feature accordion side rails, allowing them to freely form angled, offset, and curved paths. Flexible Conveyors work best with roller and skate wheel surfaces.
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  Accumulation Conveyor

  Where product and packaging surge capacity is required, Accumulation Conveyors provide buffer space to stage materials within the overall workflow. These conveyors are most commonly roller and belt surface types.
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  Pallet Conveyor

  Pallet Conveyors transport pallets, as you might have guessed! These conveyor styles are typically built in heavy-duty, high capacity, low- or floor-mount configurations.
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  Vertical Spiral Conveyor

  Raising or lowering materials to different elevations can be done in a small footprint through the use of Vertical Spiral Conveyors. Spirals are most commonly delivered in roller, table-top chain, and skate wheel surfaces, though the latter only for light-duty applications. Uphill conveyance often calls for a powered drive type, whereas downhill conveyance is often done with by gravity.
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  Incline Conveyor

  For applications requiring gradual elevation changes, higher weight capacity, firmer traction and slip control, and more precise start/stop control, Incline Conveyors are the desired alternative to the above Spiral Conveyors. Inclines Conveyors are most often delivered with powered belt and table-top surfaces when flowing uphill, and gravity roller and skate wheel surfaces when flowing downhill.
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  Telescoping Conveyor

  Rounding out our list of conveyor types, Telescoping Conveyors combine the space-saving and modularity benefits of Extendable Conveyors with the weight capacity and resilience of Straight (frame) Conveyors. Telescoping Conveyors can collapse down to small footprints when not in use and can extend out straight when needed. This style is commonly used at loading docks, extending into truck trailers for loading and unloading loose packages.

Associated & Stoffel Equipment Company serve the Upper Midwest’s Material Handling market with Integrated Supply Chain Solutions, Warehouse and Distribution Operation Optimization, Lift Truck Fleet Management, and Consulting Engineering services. We assist customers onsite and remotely from our Addison, IL corporate office and five regional branches near you. For more information or to discuss your Material Handling project needs, please visit our website here, or contact us at [email protected] or (800) 755-7201.

Conveyors and Carousels

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