Choosing Your Perfect Conveyor
When planning a conveyor system for your workplace, you’ve probably run into a small problem. There seem to be as many types of conveyor belts as there are uses for them. This can all get rather confusing if you don’t know which kind will work best for your needs.
Save yourself the headache. Whether you’re dealing with a large daily volume of packages or lots of bulk materials, here’s how to identify the right conveyor for your needs.
High Volume
Conveyors are great for moving a high volume of items. If your distribution warehouse needs to move lots of ready-to-be-shipped packages, selecting the right type of conveyor is critical.
Your ideal conveyor should feature smooth movement to ensure your items won’t get caught. Belt, roller, and skate wheel conveyors can all work for this use. If you’re using roller or skate wheel conveyors, be sure the rollers or wheels are spaced fairly close together. Depending on the items you are moving, something could get caught, which could slow down your entire operation.
Best Conveyors: Belt conveyor, roller conveyor, skate wheel conveyor
Fragile
Protecting goods as they travel along the conveyor system should be a high priority for any facility. However, even if you are extra careful with how you handle fragile packages and goods, you may find your items still need a little extra TLC.
A belt conveyor handles items with a gentle touch. Because items travel on a single flat surface at a uniform speed, there’s less risk of damages.
Best conveyors: Belt conveyor, Power conveyor
Loose Materials
Manufacturing facilities that specialize in producing small, loose materials need a conveyor to move these parts around efficiently.
A power conveyor is your best bet to ensure your materials or parts get where they need to go. You may also need a conveyor that moves your materials between multiple floors of your warehouse for different stages in production.
Best conveyor: Power conveyor, incline conveyor
Wet Use
Do you need to use a conveyor outside? If so, a normal conveyor won’t be able to handle the kind of heavy duty work you’re performing. That’s doubly true if you’re working under wet or rainy conditions.
You need a conveyor with a high capacity that can move a large amount of dirt, mud, or sludge from a potential construction site or other location. This conveyor must support both wet and dry conditions. Incline capability is useful as well, as it allows the conveyor to move materials from multiple levels of elevation.
Best conveyor: Aggregate conveyor, Incline conveyor
Apply Your Conveyor Knowledge to Your Work
That just about covers all the most common types of conveyors and conveyor uses. Of course, there are other conveyor types that can add efficiency to your workload, proving there’s always something to learn. However, we’re confident you now have the knowledge to get the right conveyor system for your needs.