Manufacturing and Industry Processing

Conveyors can play an important part in industrial manufacturing processes, rather than merely acting to transport goods from one area to another. The classic example is for feeding materials INTO a processing machine, and taking them away again. Processing can include such things as cooking, wrapping, annealing, filling/emptying of a container, binding, and so forth. Usually such conveyors link into the processing machines logic controller in order to manage inflow/outflow, and hence maximise its throughput and return on investment

A couple of simple examples are included to the left: photograph (1) shows a conveyor designed to feed food packages into a heat-sealing unit, and take them away again once sealed. Photograph (2) shows a recycling baler/compressor fed by a pit conveyor. Waste cardboard is loosely swept into the pit. The conveyor is controlled by the compressing/bailing machine, and will stop/start depending on whether the Bailer is ready to accept fresh materials or not.

Another common usage is for removing waste or unwanted material that accumulates as a consequence of an manufacturing process. This can be material such as swarf, metal cuttings, or – as in the case of photograph (3), waste sand from underneath a large metal castings machine.

At the other end of the industrial scale is the small vibrator unit in photograph (4). The intention is to get a bag of loose food products into a packing box without squashing or bruising. By putting the open box onto the vibrating rollers, and then the bag loosely on top of the box opening, the influence of gravity and the vibrations makes the bag slowly adopt the shape of the box and sink downwards into it.

Another example from the food industry is photograph (5). This odd looking machine is a very simple – but efficient and cost effective – way of pushing lids onto jars. The upper conveyor travels at the same speed as the lower conveyor. A jar entering the unit is therefore lightly ‘gripped’ between the two conveyors, and cannot topple over. The upper conveyor slopes down very slightly and hence, as the jars progress down the belt, the lid is gently pressed down. Different sized jars (in batches) can be accommodated by simply adjusting the height and slope angle of the upper conveyor.