question

Craig DIckson avatar image
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Craig DIckson asked Sam Stubbs commented

Side transfer off of a belt conveyor without pausing during divert

I am modeling a belt (non-accumulating) conveyor that has right angle transfers. But in FlexSim when a box is being transferred, the belt stops, which is not what I want. How can I make the belt keep running during the transfer?

ETA: Since it is a belt in real life, and I will be using render mode, I don't want to set the conveyor to accumulating (which shows rollers, not belts). Also - the FlexSim transfer is is on the edge of the conveyor, because the conveyor I am transferring to is sloped... it would look wrong if I connected the destination conveyor to the center of the belt.

FlexSim 16.2.2
conveyorconveyor transferside transfersnon-accumulating
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1 Answer

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Joerg Vogel answered Sam Stubbs commented

You are asking two different questions. The first is about the right behavior of the model flow. And the second is about the right visual look. Perhaps you can insert a processor for the exit to get the right behavior you like to see. Then you transfer the item from the processor to another conveyor. If you don't want to see the processor you can make the shape of the processor infinite small.

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Craig DIckson avatar image Craig DIckson commented ·

Well, OK...

I have to say though that that seems like a pretty complicated approach to model something that is very very common -- pushers and (in this case) pop-up wheel diverts do not stop the main line. This is common enough that I'm sure someone must have a simpler solution?

Is it perhaps possible to set that conveyor to be accumulating but keep the belt animation in render mode?

(FWIW I've been in the materials handling industry for 30 years, and I can only think of one right-angle transfer off of a conveyor that always stopped the main line (and that one was rollers).)

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Joerg Vogel avatar image Joerg Vogel Craig DIckson commented ·

@Craig DIckson you found this. And if you don't like the visual of rollers then you can place a conveyor without any function over your system that does the work. Simply as a cover.

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Craig DIckson avatar image Craig DIckson commented ·

@Jörg Vogel It turns out the answer is much simpler. I had to put the transfer time to zero. I had assumed that that would make the tote jump to the head of the 2nd conveyor, but it didn't - it still translated smoothly as it should.

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