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Material Handling

Conveyors:

Are They Just For

Industrial Use?

Less than a century ago, human labor was used to transport goods in manufacturing industries. Transportation of goods from one place to another as they are being manufactured is important. Previously, before the advancements in technology, it is humans who were manually transporting goods. These rising demands called for a new invention; belting systems which can otherwise be known as conveyor belt systems.

With the development of conveyor belt systems, transportation of goods in the manufacturing industry became much easier, faster and economical. As manual labor was emitted from the process, the company could save a lot of cost that they would otherwise have to pay the workers. Goods could be transported safely even in large quantities. With the success of these systems, almost every industry started using them and now you would hardly be able to find any manufacturing company still relying on human labor.

Belt conveyors can be classified into two main industrial classes; general material handling and bulk material handling. General material handling conveyors are mostly used in production factories to transport goods and material from one place to another. Bulk material handling conveyors are generally used in outdoor locations to transport industrial or agricultural material such as coal, ores or grain. General material handling conveyors may not be applicable to be used in place of bulk material handling conveyors. Also there are applications of small conveyor systems in places such as grocery stores, restaurant or even the airport.

Conveyor systems are a type of material handling equipment that is used to transfer products from one location to another. The types of materials could be raw materials, food, chemicals in fact any material that needs to be moved to the next process of production, inspection, packing or dispatching.

There are many different types of conveyors such as overhead conveyors, belt conveyors, bucket elevators, food conveyors, pivoting bucket elevators, pendulum bucket elevators and vibratory conveyers to name a few. These are powered by an electric motor, air pressure or vacuum.

A bucket elevator which can also be called a grain leg is a mechanism for moving flowable bulk materials vertically. This can be bulk materials which are either light weight or heavy, from fine to larger lumps. Basically this type of conveyor consists of the buckets which are used to contain the material, a belt to carry the buckets and transmit the pull, the power that drives the belt and any accessories for loading the buckets or picking up the material Bucket elevators can be designed to ensure that all mechanical handling system of the product is undertaken using methods that are inherently gentle and cause minimum distress to the products being moved.

Belt Conveyors are used for moving multiples of bulk or unit load products to different points within the processing system. These are low cost, product specific conveyor systems which use standard conveying components in order to move within a process or to an end of line packing facility. They can be controlled by a simple push button operation at each stopping position or coupled to intelligent controls to allow a set period at each position before moving on. This form of conveyor includes Troughed, Dished Boom, Flat Bed or Plastic Modular. Another type of conveyor is a roller conveyor which is also cost affective and very versatile. These have evolved and now you can get advanced powered roller conveyors which are designed for heavy duty applications such as pallet handling, logistics automation applications or storage where heavy product is loaded onto the conveyor via a machine or fork lift.

Most are manufactured out of mild steel but have heavy duty rollers which are powered by a shaft mounted geared motor. You can get conveyors designed and tailored to your exact needs. What conveyor suits one type of process might not be suitable for another. So getting the right type of conveyor for your processing needs is a must.

General material handling conveyors may not be applicable to be used in place of bulk material handling conveyors. These are low cost, product specific conveyor systems which use standard conveying components in order to move within a process or to an end of line packing facility.