Conveying Panels without Damage

Introduction

Customer background
A Swiss company which manufactures wooden panels and MDF (medium density fiberboard) plates
Application
Conveying panels without pallets with a total weight of up to 12 tons
Challenge
Nowadays, board and panel stacks are often conveyed on specific internal pallets to avoid the damaging or marking of the lowest panel. This is necessary because the conveyors are usually designed with narrow steel chains. In certain processes the handling on pallets causes a lot of additional costs. Therefore, Habasit has been asked to find a solution that provides a smooth and large contact surface to convey the panels without any pallets.
Recommended product
HabasitLINK plastic modular belt M5020 Flat Top Heavy Duty 2"

Measures
Since the stacks can be very heavy, Habasit proposed to design a conveyor with the M5020 Flat Top belt made of POM material and PA sprockets. Thus, to meet the high strength requirement and expectation on the belt lifetime. The OEM developed the conveyor with 3 single belt lanes which allowed him to place photoelectric sensors in-between them. The bidirectional drive design offers the possibility of conveying the stacks forth and back.

Benefits
The large contact surface of 3 times 300 mm (11.8”) wide belts provides a smooth platform for the panels and no imprints are seen. The stacks can be conveyed without the use of expensive additional pallets and the required quality is maintained. As an additional benefit, the costly and time consuming lubrication needed with the steel chains is not necessary anymore.