The art of conveying intelligence
August 1st 2007

Today's materials handling requirements increasingly demand innovative concepts. Interroll says an example of this can be seen in its intelligent conveyor system – Intelliveyor

For the systems integrator, material flow, throughput, flexibility and the ability to handle delicate goods are just some of the challenges they face when designing a unit handling conveyor system.

The end user has longer term concerns regarding ease of maintenance and environmental factors relating to noise, safety and power consumption.

Conventional conveyor solutions can be noisy and usually run continuously, consuming power even when there are no goods to be conveyed. Those which accumulate by bunching goods behind a stop create additional problems, such as line pressure, contact between and/or crushing of delicate goods.

Conceived fifteen years ago, Interroll says its Intelliveyor system continues address these problems.

Featuring plug and play roller conveyor modules, individual zones only convey goods as and when each individual item is required. A control card detects the presence of goods downstream and either conveys or accumulates, with zero pressure, following goods as appropriate.

With the latest development of Intelliveyor, Interroll says it has optimised and enhanced the range by building on the strengths of the old system – such as zero pressure accumulation, simple construction, low noise and minimal power consumption – and added extra functionality of controlling four zones from one control card, known as the ZCard. Via 32 programme settings the new card provides the possibility to operate key modules such as merges, diverts and 90° transfers, without the need for an external PLC input.

Conveyor modules are supplied in lengths (divided into the zones mentioned above), the size of which is dictated by the goods to be conveyed. Each zone comprises one Interroll 24 volt DC RollerDrive, a number of slave rollers and a photo-eye located at the front of the zone (mounted out of harms way), inside the extruded aluminium side profile. The ZCard, is now housed within its own enclosure rated at IP 54 and is also mounted behind the cover of the aluminium profile. Power and communication cables are pre installed and feature plug type connections to adjacent modules. Drive between rollers is transmitted by either polyurethane drive bands or the new poly-v belt, which allows utilisation of the latest generation of RollerDrives' inherent torque to handle unit loads of 120Kg – or slave drive up to 25 rollers – from a single RollerDrive.

Multiple elements, single supply One of the main goals for the engineers behind the development of the new Intelliveyor system, was to provide customers with the possibility to combine all the elements of a complex conveyor system with a single power supply. All Intelliveyor modules are powered by a safe 24 volt DC power supply: straights; curves; merges; pop-up wheel diverts; even 90° transfers. The latter does away with conventional lift/lower cycles, using wedge belts to transfer goods in or out – and at the same time achieving higher throughput rates.

Applications To date Interroll has delivered many successful Intelliveyor systems to systems integrators around the world. Applications include: Extremely delicate sanitary ware, conveyed on slave boards prior to firing, where the slightest contact between slave boards is not permitted for fear of damage.

Canning applications where the customer needed to improve product flow and throughput to its palletising machines.

Intelliveyor demonstrated an increase in throughput of 11%, due to its ability to ensure a constant and orderly queue of goods, even around curves.

Packing applications, where the ability to incorporate an operator foot pedal, temporarily transforms any zone into an operator station, and the absence of other mechanical devices, such as stops, provides a safe and quiet environment for the operator.

According to Interroll, innovative modules such as Intelliveyor Belt Curve+ (which features a positive drive and low cost, rapid change guide bead), or the mechanical crossbelt sorter (which provides all the advantages of a crossbelt sorter without the cost and complexity associated with other designs) have re-defined what's possible to achieve with modern materials handling modules.

More articles from Interroll Automation: