Flat-Top Conveyor Basics

It has been said that “Conveyors are intelligent bridges between islands of automation.”

A packaging line consists of a series of machines such as a filler, a capper, a labeler and so on. These are the “islands of automation.” Each, on its own, can accomplish very little. The labeler, for example, can’t do anything until it receives full, closed bottles. After labeling it can’t do much until the bottle is taken away. Sometimes this is manual but more often they are connected, or “bridged,” by conveyors.

Conveyors must know when to take away product from one machine and when to feed it to the next one. To do this, they need some intelligence. Thus, “intelligent bridges.”