By:
Michael Hosch, P.E.
Director of Product Development
Dorner Mfg. Corp.

Precision conveyors are a new category of belt conveyors used in applications when precise product movement or placement is required.  Examples of these applications include; wide or sheet part handling, product elevation, robotic picking / box filling and automated assembly.  Precision conveyors are a significant technology advancement in the belted conveyor industry providing a low cost alternative to complex placement systems.

The need for precision in automation varies dramatically on the process to be performed.  Hence the tool or device to perform that operation has various degrees of precision that is required.  Certainly it then makes sense that a mechanism that is required to be less precise would also be less costly to purchase and implement than a mechanism that is required to be more precise.

The following chart illustrates the methods of product positioning and the associated precision or repeatability that can be accomplished at a specific cycle time.  For example, the least precise method of product positioning is manual part placement.  With manual part placement you can expect on average a +/-1/2” repeatability with a cycle time of about 30 parts/min.  The most precise method is a servo mechanism or pick and place.  With the servo driven mechanism you can achieve on average +/- 0.010” repeatability with a cycle time of 100 parts/min or more.

Product Positioning Accuracy by Various Technologies:

There are other technologies/methods available providing an increasing capability of product placement accuracy along with a varying cost to implement and operate.  The technologies include a conventional industrial conveyor, a metal belt precision link conveyor, and the newest technology, a precision belt conveyor.  With a precision belt conveyor you can achieve placement accuracies of 0.020” at a rate of 100 parts/min.  This new technology provides the benefit of accuracy without the cost or complexity of a robotic system or precision metal belt.  In addition, it greatly opens up the capability versus a traditional industrial belt conveyor.  Detail application information is provided below, but first let’s look at what makes a precision conveyor different.

How is a Precision Belt Conveyor Different?
To understand the improvements of a precision conveyor you need to look first at the shortcomings of an industrial belt conveyor.  An industrial belt conveyor is driven entirely by friction.  The drive roller moves the belt by friction and the product moving on the belt also is held in place by friction.  Due to these limitations when using these conveyors in an indexing or positioning application there can be micro slipping at both points.  This slipping is caused by the inertia of the conveyor belt and product itself along with the application of Newton’s second law, “Objects at rest tend to stay at rest.”  This slipping then causes inaccuracies in product location which limits its use for indexing applications.

A Precision Conveyor eliminates the conveyor belt slippage by using a positive drive toothed conveyor belt (shown below) to effectively lock the belt position to the end rollers.  The base version of a precision conveyor still uses a conventional friction surface to locate the product to be moved.  As a result, there still exists micro slipping that can take place between the product and the belt but half of the inaccuracies have been removed versus an industrial belt conveyor.  Typical placement accuracy of +/- 0.020” can be achieved with a base version of a Precision Conveyor.

The second platform of precision conveyance is Precision Conveyor with Fixtures.  This platform contains moving fixtures or pockets added to the conveyor belt, as illustrated below.  These pockets hold the product in place to eliminate any slipping that may occur between the conveyor belt and product.  In the Precision Conveyor with Fixtures, both points of inaccuracies when compared to an Industrial Conveyor are eliminated.  Yet the base technology cost increase is not overwhelming.  It is still a base industrial conveyor design with the addition of high performance timing belt and the conversion of friction drive rollers to timing belt sprockets.  The typical placement accuracy of +/- 0.010” can be achieved with a fixture version of Precision Conveyor.

Precision Conveyor Applications:
Precision Conveyors excel at applications where traditional industrial conveyors fall short.  The majority of these applications require precision belt movement to ensure products move evenly, stay in place, or spread out by use of speed changes.  The most common use of a Precision Conveyor is a common drive arrangement, where two or more parallel conveyors are driven by one motor and are spread apart to allow access to the center of the product.  This is used in wide part handling, sheet handling, inspection, bottom labeling and assembly automation applications.

Precision Conveyor Common Drive:
The problem with using Industrial Belt Conveyors in this application is there is no way to ensure that the two belts are running the same speed and it is possible for the product to skew as it runs down the length of the conveyor.  With Precision Conveyors the belts are positively driven and you are ensured that they will stay in time and at the exact same speed.

Another application for Precision Conveyance is Pocket timing or elevation.  In this application you also have two conveyors but they are vertical and spaced apart for the elevation of product.  The conveyors have cleats or flights attached to the belts.  These flights need to stay in time to accurately and evenly elevate the product.  This is a space saving and cost effective means of elevating product from one level to another.  It can also be used for product storage / buffering.

Precision Cleated Elevation Conveyor:
To perform this application with a traditional belted conveyor would be very costly.  Complicated timing electronics and programming would be required.  This application is easily and cost effectively done with a Precision Conveyor.  No added electronics or timing verification is needed.  By common driving the conveyors off of one motor the positive drive belting will ensure that the cleats stay in time and level within the given accuracy of the system.

The final example for Precision Conveyor is also driving multiple conveyors with one motor but in this application they are be driven end to end versus side by side.  This is called slave driven conveyors.  In a slave driven application you get the cost benefit of one motor to drive multiple conveyors.  Also by connecting each conveyor through a timing belt and pulleys you can achieve different belt speeds on each conveyor.  This creates a pacing conveyor as shown below using just 1 motor.  A pacing conveyor takes product in on the first conveyor and through changes in belt speed separates the product with precise gapping.

Precision Pacing Conveyor:

An industrial belted conveyor cannot be effectively used for this application because in each case you are attempting to drive the second conveyor off of the idler end of the first conveyor.  The friction nature of the industrial unit will make this very inconsistent and sensitive to belt tension.  The positive drive of the Precision Conveyor eliminates that concern as the precision conveyor belt is capable of transmitting power at both the drive and idler sprockets.  The Precision Slave Driven Conveyor eliminates extra drive components significantly reducing complexity and saving cost.

Precision Conveyor with Fixtures Application:
The Precision Conveyor with Fixtures provides the greatest degree of accuracy capable in a belted conveyor.  It combines an accurate timing conveyor belt with an attachment system to locate fixtures along the length of the belt (see image below).  The timing belt has virtually no stretch (less than 1 mm per meter of length), and the attachment system uses the tooth technology to provide placement accuracy of 0.005”.  This belt system is controlled by conveyor end sprockets and an integrated servo gear motor.  The combined system accuracy of the components along with the response time of the controller achieves a full package accuracy of +/-0.020” at 100 indexes per minute.

Fixture Attachment System:

The high degree of accuracy along with the flexibility of the conveyor provides a platform that is well suited for automated assembly applications.  In these applications multiple operations are taking place on a given product to generate the final assembly.  These operations may include; robotic product loading, fastening, labeling, gluing, ultrasonic welding, wiring and testing.  The operations are performed in a synchronous manner with a given distance between assembly stations.  The Precision Conveyor indexes from station to station and is required to maintain a high degree of accuracy to work along with the assembly operations.  At the last station a robot or operator removes the product from the fixture and the empty fixtures go back to the first operation attached to the return belt.

Precision Conveyor with Fixtures Example:

In today’s manufacturing environment the need for precision and flexibility is key.  Product life cycles are shorter and the varieties or sizes of a given product are often many.  Running multiple product types/sizes through an automated assembly machine is a given.  The design of the Precision Belt provides the flexibility to make this possible.  Fixtures can be easily removed and exchanged for other product sizes.  Multiple fixture locations can be provided on the belt giving flexibility of multiple fixture locations and varying index distances.

The advancement of belt and conveyor technology has generated a new class of belted conveyor, Precision Conveyance.  This conveyor platform allows an economical belt conveyor technology to solve once difficult movement and placement problems.

For more information on Precision Conveyance, contact Dorner Mfg Corp or visit www.dornerconveyors.com.

Pop-Up Restaurant

A few weeks ago, SJO reports that they hosted their first Pop-Up Restaurant event, where they cooked and served dinner right there at Gary’s plant, where just house earlier the room had been full of fish guts and scraps from processing (Of course, the room was cleaned by the time the guests arrived). The guests were taught how to fillet a fish and by one of Gary’s master cutters and learned about the process before taking their seats for a delicious gourmet meal.

Aside from the unique pop-up restaurant idea, the reason this article caught our attention is their use of AquaPruf® 7600 Ultimate conveyors.  The makeshift dining room is usually where fish butchers cut the fish on long stainless steel tables and throw the fish carcasses and scrap onto our conveyor, which is sandwiched between two tables, for a trip to a waste hopper at the end of the conveyor.  You can see the blue positive drive conveyor belt in some of the pictures.  The reason an AquaPruf Ultimate conveyor was the right conveyor for this environment is its USDA approved sanitary design.  AquaPruf Ultimate conveyors are designed, end-to-end, specifically for fast, easy, and EFFECTIVE sanitation in food process environments.

It’s always fun to see how conveyors are used in so many different ways.

Fresh Fish

Seafood Processing Plant

Preparing the Meal

Sources:

• http://www.scottjosephorlando.com/
• http://www.garyseafood.com/

The Knotts Company‘s latest blog post, titled “Do you use a Stainless Steel Sanitary Conveyor?“, covers many of the ways stainless steel conveyors can contribute to food processing operations.

Raw meat on AquaPruf Conveyor

You’ve seen it in the news time after time. . . food recalls due to contamination from harmful pathogens, such as e.coli, listeria, and salmonella.  There’s no question that sanitary conditions in food production is absolutely necessary. That’s why equipment manufacturers, as well as food plant managers, have constantly looked for the best ways to keep food – and consumers – safe from these potential hazards.

The Knotts Company recently wrote specifically about “Hows” and “Whys” of  conveyor sanitation in food production.  Read their article titled “Sanitary Conveyors Are Vital Link In Producing Safe Food” to find out why keeping your conveyor clean is important and how you can ensure sanitation with some basic maintenance practices.

Precision Move Conveyor

Precision Move offering is the latest advancements in timing belting and drive technology from Dorner for its 2200 and 3200 Series low profile belt conveyors. The offering is ideal for the assembly, manufacturing and packaging industries that call for extremely accurate movement of product at specific times, distances and intervals. What Precision Move gives to specific applications such as machine integration, robotic pick-n-place, precision indexing, accurate part positioning, timed conveying, vision inspection and sheet or wide part handling is a new level of functionality and capability to the proven platforms of the 2200 and 3200 Series.

Precision Move Brochure

Dorner’s Precision Move represents the complete conveyor package for exact product movement. It includes the timing belt, integrated servo motor and drive, controls and mounting for the gearmotor.  The 3200 Series complete conveyor package has an accuracy +/- .02” and the 2200 Series complete conveyor package has an accuracy +/- .04”.  In addition, the 3200 Series offers single belt widths up to 18” wide providing maximum flexibility in direct mounting of parts or pallets/pucks.  Dorner’s unique attachment method for mounting has an accuracy of +/- .005” between them.  This makes the Precision Move offering the ideal automation solution for processes that require the accurate alignment of time and distance.

Dorner’s Precision Move package can be delivered with a 2200 or 3200 Series conveyor in less than 10 days from time of order.

For a full list of features and specifications, download the Precision Move brochure.

You can also watch this video on Packaging World’s website, where Mike Hosch, Dir. of Product Development, talks about the new offering.

LPZ Metal Scrap Removal

Elite produces precise fabricated sheet metal products for numerous industries. Of course, the manufacturing process of stamping customized sheet metal produces scrap metal – a lot of scrap metal – and it needs to go someplace. This need for scrap removal was problematic for Elite as scrap metal was simply falling into buckets that had to be emptied by hand every 30 minutes to an hour. They recognized this process as extremely inefficient, and certainly a safety issue if a worker were to hurt him or herself lifting, carrying and emptying these buckets.

LPZ Conveyor for Metal Scrap Removal

The company purchased three Dorner LPZ Series conveyors to catch the scrap and move it to large bins that now only required emptying twice a week. The Dorner conveyors were ideal because their low profile allowed them to fit underneath the scrap-metal discharge chute, yet were rugged enough to take regular pounding from sharp, jagged pieces of metal.

Prior to the installation, employees were constantly being pulled away from their tasks to empty the buckets. Also, third-shift production runs were difficult to schedule, as they would require an employee be ready to remove the scrap metal. These inefficiencies have been virtually eliminated thanks to the conveyors.

How has your conveyor system improved efficiencies? We’d love to hear your story.

Slug-O-Matic at Master Lock

Master Lock reports it has moved about 100 jobs back to its Milwaukee facility, which is now running at capacity for the first time in 15 years. And helping to keep the facility operating at capacity are several Dorner conveyors as mentioned in a previous blog post.

Manufacturing thousands of locks every day takes dependable people and precise processes – not to mention reliable equipment. So when Master Lock needs conveyor systems to move shackles, plugs and tumblers through the manufacturing process, our equipment has been the perfect fit for decades.

“I’ve been here for more than 30 years, and as far as I can remember we’ve always had Dorner conveyors operating here,” said Tony Lenhof, technical advisor, Master Lock. “We run them in a variety of environments; they’re very reliable pieces of equipment.”

Read the entire story about how Master Lock has utilized Dorner conveyors over the past 30+ years in this previous blog post.

Video reference: Master Lock gets mentioned from President Obama during speech – TODAY’S TMJ4 and http://bcove.me/06dqa4u0

We got a huge kick out of the commercial and hope you do, too!  Here’s to a hot hand at the tables!

2200 Timing Belt

What gives the 2200 Series the added weight capacity is its engineered cogged belt with teeth that engage and grip the two sprocket pulleys on each end of the conveyor. The action of the teeth on the back of the belt engaging the sprocket pulleys prevent slippage, which means the conveyor can carry a much heavier load. These engineered features increased the carrying capacity to more than 65 percent. In addition, the conveyor can handle this weight capacity while pushing or pulling the load.

The 2200 Series with advanced belt and drive technology is ideal for product assembly, manufacturing and packaging processes. Specific applications for the 2200 Series include: machine integration, robotic pick-n-place, indexing, accurate part positioning, timed conveying, vision inspection, sheet or wide-part handling.

Features of the 2200 Series include:

• 12-tooth T10 profile
• Positive drive no-slip belting
• Compatible with Dorner standard drive conveyors

Performance specifications of the 2200 Series include:

• Loads up to 200 pounds
• Belt speeds up to 370 feet-per-minute
• Belt widths between 1.75’ to 24’
• Conveyor lengths between 1.5’ to 30’

For more information on the 2200 Series, visit: www.dornerconveyors.com/2200.

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Hartland, Wisconsin-based Dorner Manufacturing is a world leader in the design, manufacture and distribution of high-quality conveyors and related equipment. Since 1973, companies from around the world have turned to Dorner conveyors for greatly improved efficiency and productivity. For more information about products or company news, visit Dorner’s Web site at www.dornerconveyors.com/2200 or call 1-800-397-8664.

Here is the transcript from the interview. . .

Why did Dorner decide to develop this particular product?

Customers have requested ways to reduce the time and difficulty to change belts. Since our conveyors are often in and or around equipment. This makes them difficult to get to. So, when the belt wears down, the time invested to change it can be significant especially separating the conveyor from the stand to change the belt.

What makes Cantilever Stand Mounts different from like products on the market?

This product is unique in the fact that the conveyor does not have to be separated from the stand. The separating of the stand from the conveyor is often the most time consuming but also the most physical. On long conveyors this requires two people since the conveyor can only be separated from on stand at a time.

Did any problems need to be addressed during the development process?

The problem encountered during design was how wide could the cantilevered stand be applied. Dorner has some conveyors 36” wide. The design team needed a way to make this cantilevered stand work at this very wide width. The goal was to improve speed and ease of belt change. The team developed to varieties of cantilever stand that accomplished both goals for both narrow and wide width conveyors.

How long did it take—from conception to ultimate production?

It took a little over 4 months once Dorner started the project. A fair amount of that time was engaging customers that requested help in the belt change area.
What role did cost factors play in changing the final design of the product?
As with all projects costs are evaluated against the benefit or value to the customer. With this particular project the cost was relatively minor compared to the benefit to the customer over the life of the conveyor.

Who is your target market and what benefits will they realize from using this product?

The audience Dorner is trying to reach with this solution is frequent belt change customers. Or more simply stated customers that go through the pain of time, cost, and difficulty of change over with belts. This solution gets them running quicker, easier and most importantly with less cost.

Any additional information you might want to add?

As in all projects Dorner was not certain of the adoption rate among potential users. Almost right out of the gate sales was hit with an instant wave of adoption. Dorner has even had more customers retrofitting conveyors than originally planned. In summary, it is great to develop a solution a simple as a cantilever stand mount and have results show you solved your customer’s pain.

For more information you can also download the cantilever stand mount brochure.

Reference: This entire interview was originally posted online at  Cantilever Stand Mounts | Current Issue | New Equipment Digest.