Conveyors haven’t changed much since they were invented during the Industrial Revolution. We use them at the grocery store, getting our luggage after flying, and many production or sorting companies across the world. Conveyors move items from one place to another and often run continuously, but how can they be made smart?
Already some belts are equipped with sensors that turn off the belt when nothing is on it, but now servo motors and sensors can track the exact location, position, direction, and speed of an item on the belt. This can be utilized in many production or packaging lines by connecting this sensing to robots, fillers, checkweighers, and much more. Instead of having to do a run of all one size before switching to the next size, those machines can conform to a run of mixed sized products with this technology by adapting to each item on the conveyor. This can certainly save a lot of time by not having set up the machines for each run.
Some conveyors are also being fitted with torque limiters than can tell when a machine is getting overloaded. These work by sending an alert to slow down the conveyor to reduce the risk of burning up the motor, which would knock out they system until it could be repaired and upset the production process for a costly amount of time.
In addition to the technology, better materials are being used to make conveyors “smart”. Wear resistant and easy to sanitize materials are being used for belts, along with metal detectors. Diamond studs are being embedded in some belt materials, and blades can be fitted to the end of a belt to keep sticky items from continuing on and falling off where they shouldn’t. More and more technology is being invented every day.
To learn more about how smart conveying systems are used in the food industry, read this article from FoodProcessing.com.