Low-maintenance motorized rollers save space
By Staff -- Modern Materials Handling, 9/15/1999
Five nights a week, while most of us are sleeping, Airborne Express is busy sorting 2.7 million pounds of parcels in their Wilmington, Ohio facility. To move these parcels-guaranteed for next day delivery- through the system, the company relies on a compact conveyor system.When installed, the conveyors were closely spaced to provide the tight layout desired and to optimize worker efficiency. Self-contained, motorized conveyor pulleys were an ideal fit for the system, since conventional belt conveyors with pulleys, idler rollers, snub rollers, and bulky drive frame assemblies require more space.
After arriving by plane, packages are conveyed to one of two buildings, where they are fed to a train of in-line tilt-tray belt conveyors. Each tilt-tray is timed to lift and lower sequentially to distribute incoming freight evenly to workers at sort stations. Handled by the sorter, a steady stream of parcels go from inbound to outbound in record time, ensuring delivery on the following day.
The motorized pulleys transfer 95% of their input power to the conveyor belt, in contrast to an 80-85% transfer for conventional systems. If worm gears are involved, that efficiency can drop as low as 50%. The only maintenance required for the motorized pulleys is an oil change every 20,000 hours of operation with no dismantling. The rollers are quiet (57-62 dB vs 80 dB for conventional drives), and there are no chains or V-belts to tighten or replace, no sprockets to align, and no bearings to grease.
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