A conveyor is a horizontal, inclined, or vertical device for moving or transporting bulk material, packages, or objects in a path predetermined by the design of the device, and having points of loading and discharge, fixed or selective. Conveyors can be either gravity powered or live.
A simply put - A conveyor is a device that is used to transfer material from point A to point B with/without intermediate loading and unloading points.
Benefits of Conveyors
Conveyors offer a wide range of benefits, many of which are readily apparent.
• Huge savings in labour costs.
This can be understood with a simple example:
A conveyor of length 10 metres running at a speed of 20 metre/min conveying units 0.5 metres x 0.5 metres x 0.5 metres, weighing 5 kg/unit, has a conveying capacity of 1,920 units/hr.
For a similar manual transportation at least 8 - 10 workers would be required to achieve a similar capacity. Whereas a conveyor would use only 2 workers; one for loading units on the conveyor and the other for unloading them.
Thus the net labour saving in this example would be 8 labour - hrs/hr of work. This would mean a saving of 80% towards labour costs.
- Highly efficient and reliable solution for material transport.
- Brings project to the worker rather than a worker having to travel to a project.
- Augment quality control processes.
- Increased worker safety - can be used for transporting heavy or hazardous products.
- Continuous transferring devices unlike lifts or shuttles which transfer only a certain quantity of material at a time.
- Timed delivery of units on an assembly line help in maintaining workers' efficiency.
- Ability to negotiate horizontal, inclined or vertical transfer paths
