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Talia Z avatar image
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Talia Z asked Begoña Espiñeira edited

Conveyor routing using Process Flow

Hello! I am working on a complex model but have attached a simplified version to gain your advice on routing in Process Flow, as I am relatively new to this side of FlexSim. My aim is to intertwine Process Flow with the 3D model to route 'Pallets' to 'Pallet_Queue1' and 'Pallet_Queue2' if there are less than 3 in either queue at a given time. This must be done in a way that the pallets are not released into the conveyor system unless either 'Pallet_Queue1' or 'Pallet_Queue2' have less than 3 pallets inside, meaning they need replenishment.

I have tried various options and would greatly appreciate your advice. Thank you in advance!
flexsim_conveyorflow_question2.fsm

FlexSim 20.0.9
conveyorprocessflowroutingflexsim 20.0.9
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2 Answers

Begoña Espiñeira avatar image
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Begoña Espiñeira answered Begoña Espiñeira edited

Hi @Talia Z I've been changing logic and I think I have what you asked for.

I've changed the logic because for the system to work as you asked, the above answer was invalid. I've created a token for each Pallet_Queue so that the contents of it are checked before creating a new pallet. You must create a content tlabel on each Pallet_Queue so that when a new pallet is created, the label content is updated even if the pallet has not yet reached the Pallet_Queue. On the other hand, I have routed the pallets so that the type 1 pallets were directed to the Pallet_Queue1 and type 2 to Pallet_Queue 2. Finally, I have assumed a pallet storage time in the Pallet_Queue, so that when pallets leave your Pallet_Queue, the label content is updated and new pallets are created to fill the Pallet_Queue to its maximum content (3 pallets)


If you have any doubt tell me!


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Begoña Espiñeira avatar image
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Begoña Espiñeira answered Talia Z commented

Hi @Talia Z , you can add two photoEyes before queues and use this simple logic:


At this way when a pallet cover the photo eye, it will check if the contents of the queue are less than 3 (Model.find("Pallet_Queue1").subnodes.length <3), if it is, it will insert a pallet into the queue, and if not, it will continue for the conveyors. I attach the model with this changes.

I hope it helps!


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Talia Z avatar image Talia Z commented ·

Hi @Begoña Espiñeira! Thank you so much for your response, this certainly helps!

This works well except one aspect - the pallets continue to enter the conveyor system once both queues have 3 pallets inside. My aim is for the Source connected to 'Queue1' to detect when these queues are full and delay the pallets from entering the conveyor system until either queue becomes <3. Do you have any ideas for how I can control this?

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Talia Z avatar image Talia Z Talia Z commented ·

Another quick question - would this flow work if there were multiple object types moving along this conveyor system? I simplified my model but it actually has two different types of objects that need to be routed to different queues. From my understanding, the logic you implemented labels any object that passes the photo eye as 'pallet' and subsequently moves the object based on this label. Do you have any advice for how to get around this issue?

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