An increasingly complex and diversified global economy has led to higher premiums on efficiency and agility. Now more than ever, conveyor systems meet these demands by affording manufacturers quick yet customizable product flow. Today, conveyors offer more capability, customization, and reliability than ever before.
While pallet conveyor systems can be grouped and categorized in a variety of ways, one distinctiveness regarding motion is synchronous versus non-synchronous movement.
Synchronous conveyors run continuously at a certain speed controlled by an operator. This means that there is no automated starting or stopping, but rather all materials move in tandem together, spaced evenly apart.
Synchronous conveyors offer several advantages.
First, their uniform product movement results in greater standardization and less inefficiencies and wasteful delays. Additionally, synchronous conveyors afford the operator greater control, as operators can at once control the entire assembly process through the drive train. Consistent speed adjustment can allow for routine product inspection and interaction as well.
One disadvantage of synchronous conveyors is that they do not allow for precise individual product flow. A product requiring additional maintenance, therefore, has to be manually relocated to an inspection area or another line. Accumulation and storage are not typically feasible with synchronous lines, either.
Still, synchronous conveyors are particularly useful in applications that require continuous movement or standardized interaction with product. The beverage, electrical, and electronic industries are just a few examples where synchronous conveyors are a perfect fit.
While synchronous conveyors are everything some manufacturers need, others require the ability to more exactly control product flow while allowing for staging, accumulation, and storage. This is where non-synchronous conveyors come in.
Moving materials in a uniform manner, non-synchronous conveyors can accommodate different process speeds and pathways, based on the task at hand. Products can buffer as they move from one workstation to the next.
Non-synchronous conveyors can also be extremely modular, allowing manufacturers to adapt to changing demands. Conveyors can be reconfigured to adjust to different work flows through reprogramming or by the addition of new modular components.
With a variety of simultaneous product movement, non-synchronous lines cannot be as easily started or stopped as synchronous lines. While their capabilities are still vast, powered non-synchronous lines can also be more costly, depending on use and scale.
Nevertheless, non-synchronous conveyors can be especially useful when you are producing multiple products on a single line, mixing automated and manual assembly processes, or increasing product complexity.
In particular, non-synchronous conveyors’ sophisticated automation makes them valuable in the automotive and electronics manufacturing industries, as well as for general manufacturing, machine building, packaging, and more.
All modern pallet conveyor systems have evolved to offer myriad production benefits. The modular design of a pallet conveyor system allows for the line to grow as your company grows; the conveyor system design can be tailored to your plant layout. Pallets also allow for the same system to run multiple products with little change-over, which can equate to cost savings.
Overall, conveyors have adapted to offer manufacturers increased productivity and output while considering ergonomics and safety more than ever before. Click here to learn more about Tekno’s modular conveyor systems.
