Automation Technology for Synchronization of Conveyor Belts, Robots

"An increasing number of processes in production lines require synchronization with conveyor belts," said a B&R spokesperson. "Ensuring the high levels of speed and precision needed to accomplish this used to require highly complex control solutions. Production lines with conveyor belt tracking have an advantage. Since the production process never comes to a stop, they can achieve higher production volumes."

"The complexity of these systems is constantly increasing, with the presence of robots becoming more and more common. Their tasks range from simple sorting to complex product processing on running conveyor belts," continued the spokesperson. The PLCopen function blocks from B&R can be used for different types of robot kinematics and even allow robots to be synchronized with multiple conveyor belts. The interfaces are also engineered for integrating HMI applications for different types of kinematic systems.

The robot can move freely during the synchronization phase, which also enables complex product manipulation. A feature of the B&R solution is that the conveyor belt is fully integrated in the application. An external sensor that supplies information about the current position of the conveyor belt is all that is needed.

The conveyor belt tracking solution from B&R is hardware-independent, which allows the use of different drive systems with different kinematics. "The application can be created quickly and easily upgraded at a later time," said the spokesperson. "The robot can be replaced or the conveyor belts can be upgraded at any time without a significant amount of application engineering work. A large portion of the software can be used as-is."

For more information contact:

B&R Industrial Automation Corp.

1250 Northmeadow Parkway, Suite 100

Roswell, GA 30076

770-772-0400

office.us@br-automation.com

www.br-automation.com