Conveyor Item Buffer

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question

Doug C asked May 30, '17 Doug C edited Jun 2, '17

Conveyor Item Buffer

I am trying to model a system where products can be transferred off the main conveyor line to the right to a process station where an operator will perform an operation and then the product will transfer back into the main conveyor line. If the process station is full, there are (3) buffer positions that the product can wait in which transfer off the left, directly across from the process station. I have the process station working, and I have the product accumulate into the buffer but I run into a problem when I try to move a case back out of the buffer.

When the process station clears and I try to resume the first case in the buffer, it tries to move in the wrong direction (tries to go further into the buffer) and gets stuck as there is no room for it to go further.

I am not sure what I am doing wrong here. Attached is my model, any help would be appreciated.

buffertest.fsm

Software Version:

FlexSim 17.1.2

conveyor buffer transfer

buffertest.fsm (31.5 KiB)

5 |100000

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

Answer 1 · 2017-06-01T00:27:19Z

Jeff Nordgren answered Jun 1, '17 Doug C edited Jun 2, '17

@Doug C

Attached is your model with the changes that I made. Rather than go into your code and try and figure out what is going on, I opted to just create my own solution next to yours.

In the model I use three queues (covered by the small conveyor objects) rather than trying to use actual conveyors. Mine isn't as elegant as yours in movement, but not knowing your exact specs, I opted for the more convenient way rather than the most elegant. I also use DPs instead of photo eyes. And again, not knowing exactly how the actual process works, I just tried to mimic yours.

Maybe you can get an idea from mine on how you might be able to fix, change, redo, whatever, your model to get it to work.

If you have any questions on what I've done or need more help, don't hesitate to let me or others know. We are more than willing to help.

Thanks.

buffertest-jn1.fsm

buffertest-jn1.fsm (44.9 KiB)

· 1

5 |100000

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

Doug C commented · Jun 02, 2017 at 06:25 PM

buffertest-fix.fsmThanks Jeff! Your example along with this old forum post I found helped me see how to take a different approach to simulating this using queues. Attached is my model with the motion smoothed out.

1 ·

buffertest-fix.fsm (43.1 KiB)

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