Conveyor Blog

Today we shipped a set of AS65 conveyors that contained two unique modifications from our specials engineering department: a cutout in the frame and a gang drive system. Our customer requested the cutout to allow a robot arm to pass under the conveyor; even our normal low profile wasn’t enough in this case. Our specials engineering team added a set of idlers on either side of the cutout to raise the belt tight against the frame.

The gang drive allows the two conveyors to operate using a single drive, and ensures that their indexing is synchronized. The part being conveyed straddles the top of both conveyors. A shaft (under the slotted guard) transfers power from the motorized conveyor to the non-motorized one.

We welcome special applications like this, and have a team of specials engineers dedicated to finding the right solution for any application.

One of our long-time customers, Tella Tool, is featured in the January edition (PDF link) of Metalforming Magazine. Our 250 Series Center Drive Conveyors form an integral part of their portable automated inspection stations, which have virtually eliminated the defective parts that were being delivered to Tella’s customers.

The inspection stations were designed by distributor Gem Automation to visually inspect automotive frame rails for improperly inserted nuts and bolts. The bad parts are pushed off the line into a locked box for later disposal. The stations can be moved quickly from press to press and configured to detect a wide variety of parts and features.

“Working with QC and Gem, we developed a conveyor arrangement that allows the parts to come out of the die in somewhat of an orderly fashion,” says Jim Szymanowski, Tella Tool’s sensor specialist. “Orienting the parts in a predictable way, to ensure that the key features fall repeatedly within the field of view of the vision system, was critical to preventing any bad parts from slipping through the system, and it proved quite challenging. But we were able to get where we needed to be.”