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Friction-Driven Overhead Conveyor System
Alternative to Power and Free
Conveyor Overview
The backbone to the IntelliFinishing design is the spinning tube, friction-driven conveyor (as seen in the above video) paired with smart controls. This technology provides ultimate flexibility and efficiency allowing carriers to:
- Move trolleys both forward and reverse
- Stop in a zone or within a process
- Move at variable speeds within zones
- Change processes or destinations of products with immediate system response
The capabilities of the conveyor allow for the following system features:
- Reduced footprint (up to 30% on several projects)
- Safer for Load/Unload, Masking, Painting, Inspection, etc.
- Responsive to ERP and lean product flow
- Part recipes can vary process times for some parts without affecting process times for other parts
- Have both driven and non-driven lines on the same system
- Highly configurable and modular
- Easily incorporate vertical lifts and shuttles to move parts to another line without unloading
Unlike Power and Free or monorail systems, the IntelliFinishing conveyor does not use a chain to move the parts, eliminating the chance of falling debris from a dirty chain contaminating the part. Dripping lubrication, greasy take-ups and chain stretch have also been eliminated with this system, giving you a clean, quiet and energy efficient conveyor system while reducing maintenance.
The conveyor system is truly de-coupled, meaning parts stopped at one section of the system do not stop the processing of parts in other sections of the system. For example, loading, stopping for masking, inspecting or labeling will not affect parts that are moving through the oven (no more over-baking).
Spurs (with no return chain) may be included or added in the future as a process changes or if special part processing needs arise. No need to over-build your current system since it is much easier to expand our system than chain systems. Furthermore, spurs are used in many ways in a typical layout including:
- Masking, inspection or repair
- Loading or Unloading
- Deadheading to change part orientation
Construction
Instead of a chain to drive the system, the IntelliFinishing conveyor is a bolted-together, floor supported system with friction driven trolleys on a rotating tube. Due to the bolt-together construction, this conveyor can be easily modified with little to no downtime. We offer a variety of conveyor models, with the ability to handle different weight categories, which enables us to further customize a system to fit your specific process needs. (The IntelliFinishing conveyor is exclusively provided by IntelliTrak and can be used in other applications.)
Maintenance
With our friction conveyor there is no maintenance or mess of keeping the chain constantly lubricated, additionally there is no mess or contamination of processed parts from falling lubrication or oil.
Operation
Each conveyor section has a separate motor which allows individual sections of the conveyor to speed up a part in a process area or slow a part down based on the part recipe. The separate motors also turn off and on the individual conveyor sections when there is a part present making this system more energy efficient because the full system isn’t always running, only the process areas being used at the given time. Additionally, the Chainless Power and Free conveyor has a much quieter operation due to no metal on metal noise.