Investment Comparison – Evaluating Conveyor Solutions for Elongated Building Products

When you work with wider or elongated building products, keeping your manufacturing line humming is heavily dependent on your conveying solution – quite literally. Wider and elongated products need to integrate seamlessly so you can prevent product damage.

At Glide-Line, we understand these challenges and get creative. We assist with economical conveyor solutions for wide products that prevent damage and catastrophic jams.

Considerations for Evaluating Conveyor Systems for Elongated Building Products

When evaluating a new conveyor system, the investment required will be a major consideration. Traditional roller style conveyors are still the industry norm but are costly to begin with – and get exponentially more expensive once you start going wider.

To build a roller conveyor that maintains its proper form, the material thickness and diameter of the rollers increase and add to the overall cost. You’ll need a stronger structure to support the heavier rollers, which will also increase your investment amount and that’s just for the material costs.

Compared to traditional conveyor systems, Glide-Line provides two base types of multi-strand conveyors for wide products – a timing belt-driven system and a roller chain conveyor solution. Both solutions can easily be configured to accommodate wide and elongated building products like door and window frames, sidings, or any other prefabricated structural support. To see how these systems stack up against traditional roller conveyors, here are three considerations for designing your next conveyor solution for bigger and heavier building products.

Economical and Efficient Product Handling Across Wider Dimensions

Glide-Line’s solutions are built using an aluminum platform with the same external dimension extrusion. This modular approach provides greater flexibility at a lower cost compared to traditional roller conveyors. You can mix and match multi-strand roller chains or belt conveyors when necessary to achieve your specific application goals.

When working with Glide-Line, you’ll have a greater ability to configure and improve your capabilities for managing elongated products – including all the benefits that come with a roller chain or timing belt solution.

Some of the key benefits of Glide-Line’s multi-strand conveyors are:

• A modular design that enables you to add strands wherever you’d like (to ensure the proper support for the product), while also spacing the strands at different widths to eliminate unnecessary strands or create larger spacing between strands,

• A center drive design with non-catenary active take-up and no limits to where you place the drive module along the length of the extrusion,

• Instant traction with the roller chain system using dynamic acceleration sections,

• Bidirectionally reversible giving you more flexibility, unlike traditional roller conveyors,

• With the roller chain, part protection covers and nose-scrapers protect the roller chain from foreign debris.

Protecting the Product During Every Stage of the Conveying and Manufacturing Process

As your products move down the line, you’ll likely want gentle starts and stops to prevent jamming (and subsequent damage) while also ensuring the product is properly supported. Traditional systems require expensive customizations and increased human intervention to keep elongated products safe during production. If you’re performing process activities along the line, Glide-Line’s Zero Contact Zoned Conveyor system allows the product to stop, start, and transfer elegantly and negate the need for more traditional pneumatic stops since each conveyor is an isolated zone.

Glide-Line’s conveyor systems can be configured to support any application and give you the kind of control you need even when working with heavier, flimsier, or elongated products. Eliminating all product-to-product contact common with roller conveyors is made possible with our Zero Contact Zoned Conveyor solution.

Shorter Lead Times from System Design to Production

When moving to a new system that’s capable of conveying elongated products, lead-time is a major concern for facility operators. The production shutdown time required to assemble your new system should also factor into your decision, which could increase exponentially when customizing a traditional roller conveyor system to your exact needs.

Glide-Line’s solutions are modular in design, easy to assemble, and you can start laying out your solution using our IMPACT! configurator today. Additionally, you get a range of customization options like vertical conveyor lift units, rotating decks, and transfer stations that help you automate the majority of tasks required in your material handling conveyor systems. For manufacturers that need an economical and flexible conveyor solution with a short turnaround time from design to production, consider our multi-strand timing belt or roller chain systems instead of an expensive, traditional roller design.

Establish an Economical Product Handling System with Glide-Line’s Multi-Strand Conveyors

When you start evaluating the most economical and efficient wide product conveying solutions, you should consider Glide-Line’s multi-strand systems. Our engineers will work with you to reduce lead times, find a cost-effective system, and support your products throughout the entire manufacturing process.

To discuss your needs for Multi-Strand and Roller Chain Conveyors for your product, contact Glide-Line today.