If your business handles materials in nearly any way, choosing the right conveyor system is a pretty critical decision.
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A well-suited conveyor system can:
While the wrong choice can lead to inefficiencies, increased costs, and damaged goods.
But with so many conveyor types and configurations available, finding the perfect match for your needs calls for careful consideration.
In this quick guide, we explore the factors to consider when you’re choosing a conveyor system, review common conveyor types and their applications, and provide practical tips for making the right choice.
Conveyor systems can make or break material handling operations. Because they automate the movement of products, these systems streamline workflows, reduce reliance on manual labor, and significantly improve productivity.
That is, when you’ve chosen the right type of conveyor, of course. Whether you’re transporting lightweight packages or heavy pallets, the right conveyor system minimizes bottlenecks and keeps operations running smoothly.
Choosing the wrong conveyor system, on the other hand, can create more problems than it solves.
An ill-suited system might struggle to handle specific product types. That means inefficiencies, increased operational costs, and even product damage. For example, fragile items require gentle handling, while heavy loads need robust equipment to avoid breakdowns.
Choosing the right conveyor system is going to require you to consider several factors to make sure your choice is compatible with your operations and product type.
Here’s what you need to consider:
The weight, size, shape, and fragility of your products play an important part in conveyor selection.
Belt conveyors may best handle lightweight items. While heavier loads like pallets often require chain or roller systems. Further, fragile products need gentle handling to prevent damage, and high production rates may demand faster or more automated systems.
Determine what your operation calls for — accumulation for temporary storage, transfer between systems, or incline/decline to navigate different floor levels, for example.
You may need specialty conveyors (like spiral or cleated systems) for elevation changes. Meanwhile, zero-pressure accumulation conveyors prevent product collisions during temporary storage.
Think about your operating conditions, such as temperature, humidity, or exposure to dust and chemicals.
Food or pharmaceutical facilities, for example, may need stainless steel or washdown-rated conveyors to maintain hygiene and meet regulatory standards.
Consider the space you have available for installation. Overhead conveyors free up valuable floor space. And compact systems can maximize workflows in smaller facilities.
Keep in mind that custom designs can optimize the layout to meet your specific needs. (And East Coast Storage Equipment can help you with that.)
Decide between manual, gravity-based, motorized, or fully automated systems. Automated solutions often boost efficiency and accuracy, but they come with higher upfront costs.
Balancing energy consumption with operational needs is key if you’re interested in running a tight operation. Look for energy-efficient motors and systems that reduce power usage without compromising performance.
Conveyor systems come in a variety of types. Each type is designed to handle specific materials and tasks. Understanding the strengths of these systems can help you choose the best fit for your product type and operational needs.
Belt conveyors are versatile and widely used for transporting lightweight or bulk materials. Smooth belts handle packaged goods well, while modular belts are great for heavy, abrasive, or sharp-edged items.
Belt conveyors are perfect for moving products over long distances and are often used in the manufacturing, distribution, and packaging industries.
Roller conveyors are excellent for handling packaged goods — particularly those with flat bottoms. They can navigate straight or curved paths, which makes them useful for more complex routes.
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Gravity or motorized conveyor options are available, depending on your level of automation. This system works well in warehouses, assembly lines, and shipping facilities.
For heavy loads like pallets, chain conveyors are the go-to option. They can support heavy weights, which makes them popular in manufacturing and logistics. Chain conveyors can also be overhead — good to know if you’re short on floor space.
Overhead systems use trolleys on tracks to transport items. So, if you’re hoping to free up floor space or manage specialized tasks like painting or assembly, consider this type of conveyor system. Overhead conveyors are common in industries like automotive and metalworking.
Specialty systems like screw, vacuum, and pneumatic conveyors are designed for unique materials. Screw conveyors are ideal for powders or granules, while vacuum and pneumatic options work well for fragile or high-moisture items.
Here are some practical tips to guide you as you choose the right conveyor for your product type:
Examine your facility’s workflows. Try to identify bottlenecks or inefficiencies. Understanding where delays or challenges happen will help you pick a conveyor system that addresses those particular issues.
Engage with conveyor system professionals (like the East Coast team) to design a solution tailored to your needs. We can help you choose the right type, size, and features for your product(s) and space.
Whenever possible, test conveyor system prototypes with your product types. This helps you make sure the system can handle your materials effectively and highlights any potential issues before you go all-in.
Think about how easy or difficult maintenance will be, as well as the total cost of ownership over time. Low-maintenance systems can reduce downtime and save money, making them a better investment in the long run.
When possible, choose a conveyor system that can adapt to future changes, such as increased production rates or different product types. Scalability helps your system remain efficient as your business grows.
Industries are rife with examples of drag chain conveyors that failed to live up to their manufacturers’ promises. The truth is there are many cheap conveyors on the market, machines that are poorly designed and equipped with low-quality. These proprietary components tie you to the manufacturer for replacement parts. There are also plenty of others that, in the right application, will work well but for another will not (e.g. a grain conveyor being used to convey wood chips).
So, before you tie your system with a bulk material handling system that doesn’t work well or that doesn’t work at all, it’s important you educate yourself about what to look for in a conveyor, how to find the best conveyor for your application, and how to find a good supplier.
There is much to consider when choosing a bulk material handling system. Suffice it to say, there is no conveyor that fits all applications. A pneumatic conveyance system, for example, is not right for green wood chips: pneumatic systems work best for dry powders of consistent particle size. Drag conveyors are better for this application.
A good supplier will educate you about which system will work best for your application. Make sure to share with your supplier accurate information about the material, infeed and outfeed processes, any plans for expansion or changes to the material, and other relevant data. This will enable him to make informed suggestions regarding your system.
A bad supplier, on the other hand, will just try to convince you that their system is right for the job even when it isn’t. To find a good supplier, you must first do your research. This advice may sound overly simplistic, but we’ve heard too many stories from and about companies that hire engineering firms to take on projects in industries with which the firms are unfamiliar. This results in stalled projects when the firms cannot complete the work or systems that perform terribly.
So, find out whether a supplier has experience in your industry, the process for which your application applies, and the material involved. Be sure, too, that the supplier has experience designing good material handling systems. And get references even when a supplier claims knowledge and success. You must ensure you’re not working with a novice or a crook.
There is a caveat to this, of course. You may want to consider a supplier without experience in your industry if they can provide better systems than the go-to industry suppliers. And remember that a supplier may possess knowledge that crosses industry lines. BE&E, for example, cut its teeth handling wood waste for forest product companies. Still, our advanced SMART Conveyors™ are suitable for many other bulk materials, and our experience with material handling systems is applicable in many sectors. Our knowledge, combined with superior equipment, has enabled us to do well as we’ve ventured outside the world of wood. To date, our conveyors have been used to convey miscanthus grass, alfalfa, bagasse, processed tires, and DDGS (ethanol byproduct), among other materials.
In light of this, we suggest you choose suppliers based on experience and quality first rather than price. If you keep the price as the No. 1 deciding factor, it can turn out very expensive: a cheap conveyor isn’t such a good deal when it needs constant repair or causes unplanned downtime. It’s important you keep cost in perspective, especially when you receive quotes for conveyors that are priced significantly less than others. You won’t get everything you want when you buy a cheap machine. Worse, it may be junk. It certainly won’t be “cheap” if you have to replace it a few months after installation.
One way to avoid buying a lemon is to look at the warranty. Generally speaking, the longer the warranty, the more confident the company is in its equipment. And the less likely it is that the machine will fail prematurely. Also, ask which parts most commonly need to be replaced. If the list is long, it indicates the machines frequently require repair. Ask, too, which parts aren’t OEM standard. If all the parts are custom-made, it may be difficult—and expensive—to obtain replacements.
Our suggestion regarding quotes is that you seek the conveyor with the best value: the conveyor that costs the least over its life. To do this, you must take into account not only the cost of the conveyor but support, shipping, and installation costs, power requirements, maintenance, repairs, and potential downtime.
This will take more digging on your part. Suppliers, for instance, typically price support separately from the conveyor quote. So, while they may price the conveyor lower than a competitor, they may actually require a higher overall cost. If their system needs an extensive support structure, they will charge you for it. How a company ships its conveyors also affects the overall cost. The less that manufacturers assemble in the factory, the more you need to assemble on-site. This means additional costs in labor.
This isn’t what you’ll get with BE&E. We build our conveyors with strong sidewalls, so the conveyors require minimal support structures. And we ship our conveyors with chains preinstalled after modeling shipment configurations. This saves time on the field when crews assemble the conveyors. It also reduces the number of loads for which our clients must pay.
We at Biomass Engineering & Equipment strive to provide conveyors with the highest-possible value. Through innovative engineering, efficient design, and solid quality, we aim to keep your operational costs low and profits high. Contact us today for a quote on your next capital project.
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