Vertical transport units, or VTUs, are often the first consideration when you’re building a pallet conveyor automation system with space constraints. While other belt conveyor manufacturers may be able to provide traditional (some may say boring!) VTUs for your automation system, our team urges applications engineers to think outside the norm when it comes to applying VTUs in their modular conveyor systems, starting with asking these five simple questions.

Glide-Line's Zero Contact Zoned Conveyor (previously named Zero Pressure) was featured in Design World (Page 60-62) as an innovative solution to manage conveyor accumulation backpressure.

Customization can give any conveyor automation integrator’s customer the heeby-jeebies. Visions of out-of-control costs, longer-than-normal delivery times, and endless back-and-forth design revisions with integrators and suppliers are enough to make them avoid necessary upgrades for as long as possible rather than take on the project.

Developing an automated conveyor system layout, estimate, and proposal involves developing a layout and a budget for your customer. As you develop the automation strategy including the conveyor system design, accurate and impressive delivery to your client could be hindered by conveyor design software that either doesn’t exist, or, if it does, lacks flexibility, innovation, or generally slows you down. Recently, we’ve addressed these concerns by creating conveyor software to help conveyor automation integrators design better, more advanced conveyor systems easily.

Conveyor design isn’t always the most exciting part of your automation system. But building an advanced, modular conveyor system can be a way for your system to showcase innovation and creative solutions in your production conveyor systems. Here are eight proven tips and creative ideas to keep in mind when engineering your next automated conveyor system.