Educational Blog

4 Unique Conveyor Topper Solutions for Your Autonomous Mobile Robot (AMR) Vehicle

Written by Kevin Mauger | Thursday, December 5, 2019

Creative conveyor topper applications for autonomous mobile robot vehicles are a natural and configurable solution for your customer’s integration challenges. To address common problems such as limited space, repetitive tasks, and constantly-changing manufacturing priorities, some unique conveyor attachments allow for flexibility in your clients’ AMRs.

In conveyor manufacturing, Glide-Line is recognized as a manufacturer of unique, customizable, and configurable conveyors of all shapes, sizes and uses. Here are just a few examples of unique features that can be built as part of your AMR conveyor to your AMR vehicle specifications – down to the millimeter – and incorporated into your design. These examples are meant to spur ideas and the pure interest in creating unique solutions.

 

Open Center Design

The Open Center Design AMR conveyor topper option supports customers using an AMR to transfer a product with a unique shape that requires a vertical hanging element – such as medical devices with tubes hanging down, or electronics with wires hanging down -- as part of the assembly process. This feature leaves a space in the center of the conveyor strands to accommodate this product’s geometry. Like most of Glide-Line’s features, this design doesn’t increase cost, even though it’s a customization.

 

Small Diameter or Overlapping Tight Transfers

The Small Diameter Nose Bar Transfer, or “Tight Transfer,” can be implemented with any conveyor topper that will be used to transfer smaller products.  Small diameter nosebars are good for most applications, but the conveyor “strands” can be overlapped with one another at an interface point to provide seamless transfers. 

 

Rotating Conveyor

The conveyor topper can be designed to rotate 360 degrees, just like a turntable.  Putting this rotating conveyor on a DC stepper drive can achieve any angle or angles required. This is especially helpful for changes in orientation required for product receipt and/or delivery.  

 

Multi-Zone, Smooth Movement

At Glide-Line, we are proud to offer  unparalleled attention to smooth transfer and movement  of products, no matter where their conveyors are integrated in the manufacturing process. By providing a number of ways to accomplish a smoother transfer from AMR to main line and vice-versa, Glide-Line’s focus on smooth transfer means there are multiple options of conveyor toppers that can meet this need, as described above. We also offer a Zero Contact Zoned Conveyor toppers, which runs on individually-controlled DC motors so backpressure is not an issue and products never contact each other. The same concept is applied to AMR conveyors in that the conveyor movement can be programmed specifically to prevent any pressure jostling, or potential product damage.

 

Glide-Line has hundreds of possible configurations for conveyor attachments for AMRs depending on your clients’ needs, the project scope, and your design. We love working with integrators to collaborate on new  ways to apply our incredibly configurable AMR conveyor toppers.

 

Learn more in our recent ebook here, and check out our entire line-up of conveyor options suitable for AMRs.