General Information About Infeed

General

Developing a solution for a infeed application is generally no easy task because it depends on many factors that can vary in a broad number of areas. Before the sizing of the mechanics and the development of an algorithm is started, the given boundary conditions and requirements must be clarified. These are:

Products/product flow
Product length
Minimum/maximum distance between the supplied products
The static friction of the products/maximum permissible acceleration of the belts
Do the belts need to be synchronized while products are transferred from one belt to the next? How sensitive is the product or are they allowed to touch each other?
Can the product be retained?

Specifications
Required performance (pc./min.)
Does a certain phase shift for the products or only a certain distance need to be established on the target belt? How large is the target distance between products on the target belt?

Specifications

Required performance (pc./min.)

Does a certain phase shift for the products or only a certain distance need to be established on the target belt?

How large is the target distance between products on the target belt?

Velocity feed forward of the machine
Is a velocity feedforward for the preceding or subsequent machine required? In which area can it affect its velocity?
Are idle cycles permitted?
What is the maximum length available for the infeed?

Velocity feed forward of the machine

Is a velocity feedforward for the preceding or subsequent machine required?

In which area can it affect its velocity?

Are idle cycles permitted?

What is the maximum length available for the infeed?

If these points are clarified, the sizing of the mechanics (number and length of necessary belts) and the infeed algorithm that should be used can be started.