The Basics of Robotics, Automation, Assembly Applications and Conveyor system Integration

The rapid rise of robotics and automation in manufacturing is quickly becoming a cornerstone of industry 4.0. This shift requires conveyor system manufacturers to find novel ways to merge automation, robotics, and conveyors into complete and agile systems across industries.

Conveyor manufacturers in Canada and throughout North America must integrate robotic material handling technology like collaborative robots (cobots) for picking, palletizing, automated truck unloading, or other tasks into operational flows. Blending robotics, conveyors, and automation requires an endless number of solutions to meet an equal number of manufacturing scenarios. As the foundation of material handling system design, the supporting conveyor system needs to be just as flexible.

Automation integration with Modular Designs

The focus of leading conveyor system manufacturers is on providing the right combination of standardization and customization options to lower costs and meet needs of industries and manufacturing environments. For many manufacturers, that may mean optimizing the how the conveyor presents orders to a robot such as a picking arm or palletizer. These intersections of automation and robotics require precise movement of products on a conveyor.

An example would be a robotic operation to piece-pick individual items for order fulfillment out of totes. This requires conveyors to present orders in ways that thin out and present bulk products in a highly regimented and repeatable way. But conveyor system designs also have to support mobile robotics in product conveyance to create efficiencies that lower the need to add more robots or people to the process.

Conveyor manufacturers in Canada such as Conovey meet these and a myriad of needs by developing new designs. We also accomplish this by partnering with other conveyor manufacturing companies operating across the USA and Canada that are leaders in a wide variety of conveyor design innovations. One example of the apex of conveyor design that meets the agility, flexibility and integration needs of automation and robotics are modular conveyors.

Leading modular conveyor manufacturers like Spantech are meeting industry 4.0 needs across a wide variety of manufacturing sectors by championing versatility through modular parts/section standardization and customization of system design. On one hand, a broad array of standardized components supports modular designs to meet a wide variety of needs. Their modular nature also enables infinite system designs that can more easily incorporate automation and robotics.

Modular Conveyors Lower Costs and Increase Options

This lowers the manufacturer’s total cost of ownership through fast replaceability while increasing the ROI by delivering the ability to meet customization needs through unending design configurations. Modular conveyors designed for the industry 4.0 era are highly adaptable to the needs of automation and robotics integration in manufacturing environments.

The whole point is to allow manufacturers to customize the conveyor system for specific operations. Simplicity of execution, repeatability, and precision of product advancement and presentation are all challenges that can be addressed in part by modular conveyor designs.

Manufacturing must always employ practical solutions that lower costs while raising efficiency. This has given rise to a multitude of engineering approaches ranging from retractable tail conveyor modules to new motor and conveyor automation control designs. These and other new conveyor technology integration approaches are putting conveyor manufacturers in Canada at the forefront of industry 4.0, automation, and robotics in manufacturing.

Pallet system conveyors are one way that conveyor manufacturing companies operating across the USA and Canada meet the automation needs of palletizing. But this is only a subset of needs fulfillment at the intersection of robotics, automation and conveyors.

We can see the flexibility of modular conveyor systems as more of a foundation across manufacturing environments integrating robotics and automation into their industry 4.0 approach. By delivering conveyor components and designs aligned with these industry-4.0 needs for processing or packaging, conveyors advance automation use rather than impede it.

To learn more about versatile conveyor solutions that can meet emerging industry 4.0 conveyor needs, visit Conovey.com.