How to prevent side transferred items from bumping into each other?

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Afthab L asked Jul 5, '21 Afthab L commented Aug 10, '21

How to prevent side transferred items from bumping into each other?

Hi,

I've been trying to model one very long conveyor with numerous side transfer conveyors as shown in the image below.

When the entry space is reduced for the main conveyor, the items still enter into the main conveyor despite bumping into the item behind it causing it to stick together. Does this not violate the entry space condition?

I don't want them to stick together so if the distance is insufficient, the transfer conveyor should not send through the package. I'm not sure how to go about doing this. Any help would be appreciated.Throughput_1.fsm

Software Version:

FlexSim 19.2.4

conveyor side transfer

1625488141784.png (166.6 KiB)

1625488250598.png (242.5 KiB)

throughput-1.fsm (47.3 KiB)

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Attachments: Up to 12 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 23.8 MiB each and 47.7 MiB total.

Eric M commented · Jul 19, 2021 at 07:35 PM

Hi @Afthab L, was my answer helpful? If so, please click the red "Accept" button at the bottom of the answer. Or if you still have questions, add a comment and we'll continue the conversation.

If we haven't heard back from you within 3 business days we'll auto-accept an answer, but you can always unaccept and comment back to reopen your question.

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Answer 1 · 2021-07-09T17:24:25Z

Eric M answered Jul 9, '21 Afthab L commented Aug 10, '21

Hi @Afthab L I made a solution using process flow. It works by putting items in a zone when they're travelling on the main conveyor. The incoming side transfers check the content of that zone and are only allowed to continue when the zone content changes to 0. This way the main conveyor items never stop. The incoming items are the ones that have to defer to whatever is in the zone. Of course, the zone can be manipulated by changing the location of DP2 and DP3.

acquire-priority_1.fsm

acquire-priority-1.fsm (55.2 KiB)

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Attachments: Up to 12 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 23.8 MiB each and 47.7 MiB total.

Eric M commented · Jul 09, 2021 at 05:25 PM

The Entry Space only looks at items passed the entrance point. So it means the item must wait for the item in front of it to move until x distance is met if that makes sense.

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Afthab L commented · Aug 08, 2021 at 09:43 AM

Hi Eric! Thank you so much for the reply. I sort of gave up on an answer from the forum so didn't check the replies (my bad). The solution you presented however still seems to have the same issue where even when the box enters the zone, priority is still given to the side transfer conveyor (time stamp at 26s). Is there a way to make it so that if there's any content within that zone , no box should enter from the side transfer conveyor.

Thank you so much btw! I've just started learning process flow so it's still very daunting for me.

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1628415678230.png (267.5 KiB)

Eric M Afthab L commented · Aug 09, 2021 at 04:44 PM

@Afthab L no problem on the delay! I apologize it took us a little while to get you an answer. What's actually happening at 26s is that the side transfer item is arriving just before the main line item. So the token in process flow checks the zone content, sees it's 0, and then sends the item into the main conveyor. Right after this, the main line item's token enters the zone. I assumed this was okay because the main line items were never stopped even with the incoming side transfer items. Moving DP2 slightly to the right would make the side transfer item wait in the case of 26s. You could adjust the position of DP2 even more to get the spacing down to where you wanted it.

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Afthab L Eric M commented · Aug 10, 2021 at 12:31 PM

I get it now, I thought the system would check DP 2 twice; the first time as normal and then again when the item passes through DP 1. I get it now, Thanks a lot again! You've saved me a lot of trouble!

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