As you can see from our two blog posts on the different kinds of conveyors (What Conveyor Is Right For Me 1 and What Conveyor Is Right For Me 2) there are a lot of different choices. So how do you go about choosing the best one for your operation? This article is going to be a step by step guide on how to choose a conveyor system for your business.
What Questions Do You Need To Ask Yourself?
What type of product is being conveyed?
This is THE most important question when it comes to selecting a conveyor. If you are transporting powder or granular material; vibrating, pneumatic, or screw/auger options are great choices. However, on the flip side, you wouldn’t want a ball transfer or a roller conveyor. The opposite can be said if you are transporting boxes. They just wouldn’t go through a pneumatic or screw/auger.
What is the average weight per foot of the product? What is the maximum weight of the product?
This question is also a huge determinate for the type of the conveyor that you’re going to use. The ball transfer is the perfect example for the first question. The largest item being conveyed needs to weigh less than the combined capacity of all of the balls carrying it. When it comes to the second question, a lot of conveyors have a “heavy duty” option. Belt, slat, vibrating, and more all have options for heavier applications.
What is the smallest, largest, and average size of products being conveyed?
Once again, when it comes to the ball transfer, the length and the width of the smallest item that is being conveyed needs to be at least 3X the table’s ball spacing dimensions. If products are too big to be conveyed they may do things like; clog a chute or pneumatic tube, lead to spillage on bucket conveyors, or break belt conveyors. Lastly, let’s take a look at overhead conveyors. If you have something heavy, you are are going to choose a free model instead of a powered one.
How are products being conveyed and in what orientation?
If this is important to the set up to your business, you will want to choose a belt, magnetic, or slat conveyor instead of the other options. These conveyors prioritize product orientation more than the other systems. We will get into this more when talking about process requirements.
The Ideal Conveyor System Is……
Operationally Safe
A great example of this is when you look at bucket conveyors. You need to ensure that if there is a risk of an explosion due to dust that the conveyor meets ATEX or other similar compliancies. With that being said always make sure that any conveyor that is installed in your plant meets any compliancies that are required within your industry. Also, always make sure to adhere to best and safest practices.
Energy Efficient
Getting an energy efficient conveyor is one of the easiest ways to cut down on overhead. Some of the more energy efficient conveyors are the overhead, bucket, roller, ball transfer table, and standard slat conveyors. Each of these give you an energy efficient option for any kind of material that you need to convey.
Reliable
Durability in a conveyor is important because even if it is energy efficient, you do not want to be paying repair costs on a weekly or monthly basis. Some of the more reliable conveyors are the heavy duty slat, vibrating, and chain conveyors.
Adaptable
A lot of times plants, DC’s, and factories have complex floor plans and operations. Due to this, you sometimes need a conveyor that is adaptable. Your best bet is to get something that is modular and portable. Most conveyors have an option for this however these conveyors are known for it; ball transfer table, overhead conveyors, and chutes (since they have spiral options to minimize the floor space needed).
Cost Effective
I feel like this is an obvious one for everybody. Who wants to overpay for something when the cheaper option will do just as good? Some of the more cost effective options are the following conveyors; ball transfer, chute, and chain conveyors. On the other hand, things like overhead conveyors are going to be less cost effective due to the higher installation prices.
Lets Talk About Process Requirements
Distance That Items Need To Move
As you can see from the two previous articles, there are three kinds of conveyors when it comes to categorizing them by distance traveled. There are those that are meant to cover vertical or horizontal distance, those meant to change directions, and those that are meant to accumulate. Overhead, belt, magnetic, chain, roller, and slat conveyors all fit into the first category and have the potential to cover long distances. Rollers and ball transfer tables have the potential to be used to change directions. Lastly chutes are used to accumulate materials.
The Pathway
How complex is the path that the material needs to follow? Belt, slat/apron, overhead conveyors, magnetic, and chain conveyors all present the opportunity for materials to follow a complex path. However, vibrating, bucket, screw, and walking beam conveyors all require that the material follows a specific path (for instance a trough).
Orientation
We can’t emphasize enough how important this can be to operations. If it is very important to keep the products faced a certain way, you will always go with a belt, slat/apron, overhead or magnetic conveyor. The benefit of these conveyors are that they are designed so that the product faces a certain direction. All other conveyors in the previous two articles either; move granular materials or have no consideration for product orientation.
Transfer Speed
Every single conveyor in the past two articles have different versions with different transfer speeds. Let’s first take a look at a few different options for belt conveyors (sorters in DC’s to be more specific). From slowest to fastest they go; horizontal belt sorter (20-50 cartons/min), strip belt sorters (25-65 cartons/min), steerable wheel sorter (30-80 cartons/min), and the pop up wheel sorter (75-125 cartons/min). Now let’s look at vibrating conveyors. The standard models generally move material at a rate of 60 feet per minute. The heavy duty moves a little faster at 90 feet per minute. When it comes to transfer speed, always keep flow rate in mind. You always need to calculate the average flow rate along with the flow rate at times where there is high demand. The number of products transferred per hour determines what type of conveyor and how long it will be.
Ambient Environment
Despite us being a belting company, we realize that sometimes the ambient conditions are too rough for belts. Slat/apron conveyors are perfect for high temp and hazardous operations. This is because the conveyors can have the slats made from any material needed to resist environmental factors. Another environmental risk is the risk of explosion due to dust in the air. To combat this, bucket conveyors can be made to certain specs to ensure that this is no longer a risk.
Available Space
If you aren’t working with a lot of space. Always select something modular or compact. Chutes have spiral options so that materials can travel from floor to floor without having to take up as much ground room. Overhead conveyors work completely out of the way of people and machinery. Pneumatic conveyors take up less floor space due to the fact that it is only a tube. There are always options to maximize the space that you are working with.