As manufacturing practices continue to rapidly change, it can be hard for your clients to know when to take on an investment like an AMR. While the costs may be high, not installing the motorized robots could be short-sighted. The good news is that there are options to optimize your clients’ AMRs’ efficiency, generating a higher ROI while improving work conditions and automating additional processes with the AMRs. An innovative, flexible conveyor solution, built for the top of the AMR, from Glide-Line is one of those options.

Upsizing conveyor components is the norm when conveying large or relatively heavy products. For items such as airplane wings and auto parts, this can be the most effective material handling solution. But traditional conveyor accumulation techniques can give way to product damage.

When moving larger and/or awkwardly shaped products directly on a conveyor, putting products on a more conveyable pallet capable of handling the contact driven by accumulation is typically the right conveyor system design. But unique products require unique solutions. Glide-Line’s Zero Contact Zoned Conveyor design solves this challenge. A Zero Contact Zoned Conveyor solution can offer a better way to accumulate a product without a pallet.

When developing the right assembly line conveyor system, reducing damage is a top priority. This is especially the case when moving partially-assembled products. Moving products in a semi-complete state can ruin them completely, leading to additional costs and delays. In that situation, the last thing you need is a conveyor system that causes products from banging into each other!

Online, buffering gets a bad rap. But when it comes to buffering in an automation process, there’s a simple but incredibly effective solution that saves space, saves money, and saves lead time. I won’t leave you hanging; read on to learn more about the Machine Buffering Solution from Glide-Line. Glide-Line’s Machine Buffering Solution is a vertical buffer. By stacking accumulated products vertically in a vertical sortation and storage device, this device is able to take the place of other accumulation or buffer solutions without taking up floor space. It can also be applied in an automation system as a racking or short-term storage solution. This simple solution is a standard option from Glide-Line, and it can be easily customized to fit your client’s automation process.

The Tilting Deck Vertical Transfer Unit from Glide-Line allows for vertical transfer of a product and has the ability to tilt the conveyor deck (our current design is up to 30 degrees, but we could increase). This provides access to the product being transported vertically for visual inspection or other automated processes. Whereas our competitors don’t have a standard option for a conveyor mechanism like this, Glide-Line builds this component as a standard, with our clients able to customize the angle of the tilt to exactly what they need.

Glide-Line’s Direct Product Handling Conveyor and its Zero Contact Zoned Conveyor for Appliance Handling are zero-pressure zoned conveyors designed to handle appliance parts or products directly on the conveyor belt (with no pallet on the conveyor system). These conveyors are built for fragile or delicate products and utilize a high friction surface on the conveyor belt to prevent the products from slipping. Further, these are designed to be used in a zero pressure drive method to maintain maximum control over the product motion through an automation process: no touching, no damage.

Configurability is an important feature of all our conveyors, and the Multi-Strand Transport Conveyor from Glide-Line is no exception. The Multi-Strand Transport Conveyor is a material-handling solution of two or more strands (including odd numbers), transporting panel-like products or large, platform-type fixtures from workstation to workstation.

Utilizing minimal space to develop an automation process is a common challenge with our integrator clients; conveyor systems that reduce floor space are the solution. Consider completing tasks within an elevator application to significantly reduce the conveyor floor space that would otherwise be needed to complete the process off the main line. This solution can help:

Loading a conveyor rack or shelving system as part of your conveyor process can easily become a labor-intensive task. It can slow your process if you don’t automate it. And your clients don’t typically have the extra arm and leg lying around to pay for an automated system.