Conveyors are the backbone of packaging and processing lines, ensuring smooth transitions and efficient product handling. In this Package This episode, explore the key conveyor types, including infeed and discharge systems, bucket elevators, and modular conveyors. Learn how these machines enhance productivity, reduce downtime, and adapt to changing production needs. Watch now and see some conveyors in action!
Learn more from SpanTech at https://pmmi.media/PTSpanTech24
Learn more from Frazier & Son at https://pmmi.media/PTFrazierandSon24
Learn more from Morrison Container Handling at https://pmmi.media/PTMorrison24
Welcome to Package This, your guide to the world of packaging machinery and materials. Today, we’re looking at conveyors—the essential equipment that moves materials, ingredients, and packages across packaging and processing lines. Let’s get rolling!
Infeed & Discharge Conveyors
Infeed and discharge conveyors handle the transfer of products into and out of machines, ensuring they’re correctly positioned for the next step.
Take a look at Span Tech’s infeed and discharge systems. Designed for precise handling, these infeeders and dischargers prevent misalignment and jams that could slow production, boosting overall productivity.
Span Tech designs conveyors with adaptable features like adjustable speeds, custom lengths, and various configurations that fit seamlessly with other equipment, making them ideal for diverse needs.
Built with durability, Span Tech’s infeed and discharge conveyors are made for continuous operations and reduce downtime with minimal maintenance. This flexibility and reliability mean smoother product flow, lower operational costs, boosting productivity on the line.
Bucket Conveyors
Bucket conveyors, also known as bucket elevators, transport products vertically with individual buckets, making them especially suited for gentle handling of finished food products, minimizing degradation prior to packaging.
Frazier & Son's bucket elevators are designed to elevate products gently and consistently, protecting product quality with smooth transitions that reduce breakage.
With a range of configurations available, Frazier & Son offers discharge designs that deliver products to multiple inline packaging machines through a single bucket elevator.
Sanitation is of utmost concern on any line, and Frazier & Son bucket elevators have stainless steel frameworks, polished welds, accessible doors and covers, and wet-wash options to expedite cleaning.
Screw Conveyors
Screw conveyors use rotating timing screws to position containers, ensuring they’re spaced and aligned for filling, capping, and other downstream processes.
Here we see Morrison Container Handling’s screw conveyors providing proper spacing and orientation for rigid and semi-rigid containers.
Timing screws work in a variety of high-speed, continuous motion applications, including feeding, grouping, indexing, turning, combining, and dividing.
By correctly positioning containers for other packaging applications, screw conveyors like these streamline filling, capping, labeling, case packing, and cartoning, making them indispensable workhorses on production lines.
Modular Conveyors
Modular conveyors are easily adjustable and reconfigurable to fit various layouts and production requirements.
Span Tech’s modular conveyors are known for their adaptability. With a modular plastic chain design, they offer easy customization and scalability—you can expand, reconfigure, or adjust them as production needs change, without a full system overhaul.
The modular plastic chains also simplify maintenance. Damaged sections can be replaced individually without needing to replace the entire chain, keeping downtime to a minimum.
These chains accommodate complex paths with curves, inclines, and declines, making them ideal for production spaces with limited room or unique layouts, maximizing space and adapting seamlessly to any line.
Guides, Rails & Adjustment Systems
Guides and rail systems ensure products move smoothly along conveyors, while adjustment systems allow quick height changes to fit various product sizes.
Span Tech designed its EZGUIDE guiderails for streamlined changeovers. Operators can adjust guiderails quickly, without extra tools, making transitions between product runs seamless.
Unlike traditional guiderails with protruding rods, EZGUIDE has no exposed parts, significantly reducing risks of snagging, tripping, or accidental contact with sharp edges, helping prevent injuries to operators and other personnel.
Built for durability, these guiderails are low-maintenance and constructed from high-quality materials, designed for continuous use and lower operational costs over time.
Components & Accessories
Conveyor systems often need additional components and accessories to further enhance and optimize performance and safety.
Span Tech offers a range of accessories to enhance conveyor functionality. Add-ons like bump rotates and conveyor lift gates allow customized solutions for specific production needs.
Safety-focused options, such as Lexan guarding and conveyor sidewalls, help reduce injury risks while maintaining compliance with industry standards.
Maintenance is also simplified with features like conveyor clean-out holes and chain washers, keeping hygiene standards high and extending conveyor life. These accessories add versatility, safety, and ease of maintenance for any production line.
Other Types
Now, let’s wrap up with a quick overview of other conveyor types commonly seen in packaging and processing lines.
- Vertical conveyors: Lift products to different heights, making the most of vertical space while maintaining product orientation.
- Vibratory conveyors: Ideal for gentle handling and separating products by size, weight, or other characteristics.
- Overhead conveyors: Free up floor space by suspending product transport systems above ground level.
So that’s a quick overview of conveyor types for packaging and processing lines. If you'd like to learn more, visit us at ProSource.org.
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