When a customer in Mexico needed a means to move 3,000 lb pallet loads vertically, a U.S. manufacturer of continuous vertical conveyor systems was awarded the contract to build six of these custom units. The conveyors transport finished circuit boards on pallets measuring 4 ft square by 8 ft high.

Several features of the six vertical conveyors presented unique design challenges. Capacity of each unit had to be 6,000 lb, or 50% greater than any system the manufacturer had built previously. The conveyors also had to be installed in pits, which meant that repair and replacement considerations were critical in the design. Finally, the sheer size of the six systems posed shipping challenges.

The manufacturer addressed these challenges with a system that has five pallet zones of accumulation and is totally reversing. The conveyors process three loads per minute with two pallets carrying 6,000 lb in process at any one time, and loading and unloading in a "Z" pattern.

Like other continuous vertical conveyors this manufacturer builds, the units in Mexico have platform carriers that are rigid in the horizontal load-carrying position, but flexible in the opposite direction. Thus the carriers rotate around the sprockets, travelling the minimum distance on the return phase of each cycle.

Installed in pits, the conveyors load at floor level and lift loads slightly more than 27 ft to a second floor.

To avoid having to get oversize shipping permits to transport from Cincinnati, where the conveyors were built, to Mexico, the manufacturer designed and built the systems in modules that could be disassembled to fit on a standard trailer. Field installation was simplified, moreover, with cabling that is plug-in connect so that field wiring and running of hard conduit was greatly minimized.

TKF
513-241-5910
www.tkf.com