IQS Newsroom Articles on Roller Conveyors
Roller Conveyors
A roller conveyor is a type of material handling equipment that moves products, packages, foods or equipment from one place inside a facility to another, or through various stages of automated manufacturing or finishing using rollers placed parallel to one another to provide movement. In order to move properly move products or materials, roller conveyors require flat-bottoms and possession of an area sufficient to span several adjacent rollers. Roller conveyors have three main divisions: gravity roller conveyors, lineshaft roller conveyors and pallet roller conveyors. Applications for roller conveyor systems include distribution, warehousing, material handling, shipping, sortation, washing and drying. Roller conveyors are often used in industries such as commercial, industrial manufacturing, aerospace, construction, pharmaceutical and metal finishing.
Roller conveyors convey products horizontally along a pathway containing a series of rollers that are placed perpendicular to the direction of travel for movement. These rollers are contained in a fixed frame that elevates the pathway from several inches to several feet and are spring-loaded with hex angles or round angles. Roller conveyors can be powered or non-powered: powered roller conveyors are powered by chains or belts and non-powered roller conveyors can be manually powered and straight or are driven by gravitational forces, necessitating the pathway to have a downward slope large enough to overcome rolling fiction. Powered roller conveyors use small belts and plastic spools in order to provide traction to the rollers, but also allow products to accumulate on the conveyor if there is a queue. Heavy duty roller conveyors are typically powered by friction belts or chains underneath that are attached to a shaft that runs the length of the conveyor frame. The shaft is connected to an electric motor and powers the rotation of the rollers. Skate wheel conveyors are very similar to roller conveyors, but instead of a roller pathway there is a pathway of skate wheels that is used to facilitate movement. Skate wheel conveyors are typically lighter-weight and as a result are generally used for lighter load weight applications.
There are three main types of roller conveyors used in manufacturing and distribution applications. Gravity roller conveyors are non-powered and the rollers are supported on shafts by bearings. Formed or structural punched frames contain these shafts by either retaining pins or internal springs. Since the roller conveyor is driven by gravity, the product can be free-wheeled manually (horizontally) or the product can be allowed to fall over a certain distance with a slight decline. Lineshaft roller conveyors have a single shaft that runs below the rollers for the length of the conveyor frame. On the shaft there are a series of spools; one spool for each roller. Rubber o-rings run from spools on the powered shaft to each roller. The shaft is then powered by an electric motor and the rubber o-ring acts as a chain between the spool and the roller causing rotation. The rotating of the rollers pushes the product along the conveyor. Pallet roller conveyors consist of thick walled rollers with sprockets attached to the ends that are connect the rollers to the motor and are power the rotation of the rollers. Driven by chain to chain or tangential, or one common chain, drive mechanism, pallet roller conveyers have a fully enclosed side frame and an external shaft mounted motor.