Roller Conveyors
Roller Conveyors have a wide range of applications in industries such as warehousing, assembly lines and ‘pick and pack’ applications. The Unpowered conveyor is the Gravity Roller conveyor while the Power conveyor is called as the Powered Roller Conveyor which comes in many designs and categories.
The simplest of all conveyors is the Gravity roller conveyors. It is thought that the roller technique was used in the construction of the Pyramids and Stonehenge, amongst other things. While we still use the techniques used by our forefathers, we have refined the system a lot to suit our modern needs.
They are used to transport solid items with a flat base for avoiding the risk to topple. They can be set at a slight incline or horizontal, to allow staff to ‘freewheel’ the products along the line. The items will experience a small amount of vibration as they pass from roller to roller.
Very tiny loads are not suitable for this type of roller conveyors or discrete shape packages can lock the rollers. Also problems occur with items that have a high centre of gravity, or a narrow base, which could topple as they pass from one conveyor roller to the next.
Of course wet, sticky, or semi-solid items such as clay, bread dough, Liquids, powders, aggregates are also unsuitable for roller conveyors. For such kind of materials, Chain Drive rollers are the best option.
A major attraction of roller conveyors in general is the low capital cost, combined with negligible maintenance cost. Short of an all-out attack by a fork-lift truck or similar, there is very little that can go wrong with them. Individual components – such as the rollers – can be easily and cheaply replaced in the event of accidental damage.
Roller beds can be made from plastic, mild steel, galvanized steel, or stainless steel rollers depending on the sort of load and usage you require, and on what environment you wish to operate the machine in. (for outdoor use we would normally recommend galvanized rollers at the very least, for example).
It is usual for a conveyor to be custom-built for a particular application, and hence can be “pre-set” at any desired height or angle of slope. They can also be fitted with variable-height feet to allow both adjustment of overall height, as well as minor adjustments to slope angle. For larger adjustments, the units can be fitted with variable-angle legs, or even telescopic legs.
When gravity alone is not sufficient to move a load then roller units can be powered, with options of LineShaft-Drive roller conveyors for lightweight (up to 20Kg or so) packages.
In addition to the obvious benefits of being powered, these units can also offer accumulation. This means that when a package reaches the end of the conveyor, it will stop, without stopping the rest of the conveyor. Hence packages can gradually “accumulate” at the end of the conveyor, awaiting human intervention or automatic transfer to another conveyor etc.. The drive shaft powers each roller by means of rubberised bands.
Chain Drive Roller Conveyors are used for bulky and loads greater than 20Kg. The principles are the same but, as the name suggests, chains are used to provide a more heavy duty drive mechanism.
For more information about the uses and applications of power roller conveyors and custom design and installation visit our web site at www.roller-conveyor.co.uk.