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01384 267070 | Automated material handling
Welconstruct Customer solutions can provide a complete conveyor control system for your material handling requirements which integrates fully with your existing warehouse management system. Alternatively it can form part of a Welconstruct designed warehouse management system (WMS) with live continuous data exchange between the WMS, industrial PCs and the PLC to ensure full traceability of production and sortation sequences in a user friendly manner. | |||||
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Powered roller conveyors have the ability to accumulate, stop, transfer, lift and lower products. These systems allow movement in almost any direction, putting them at the centre of production, order fulfilment and dispatch systems. Loads can be placed either directly onto the rollers or mounted on "slave boards" if required. Control by PC and programmable logic controllers (PLCs), sensors and barcode readers transform this type of solution into a sophisticated material handling system.
Belt conveyors are ideal for transporting products that vary considerably is size and weight. Although normally considered as a solution for handling goods on inclines such as feeding and loading mezzanine floors, precise horizontal movement for sortation can also be achieved. The material of the belt will vary according to application. Food quality belts and stainless steel frames are standard options. The degree of control required in terms of the number of emergency stops and photo electric cells installed will vary with each application.
Automated storage systems and bulk storage locations are designed to accommodate pallet loads, the logistical movement of which can be best achieved through the use of conveyors featuring control, indexing, sortation and data management. There are many different ways of moving pallets depending upon the environment and functionality required.
The need for accuracy, speed and reliability when gathering data within the inventory management system has meant that bar coding is used more and more in order fulfilment, production and warehousing. A production example would be operators on an assembly line logging on and off using a hand scanner with bar coded tags, providing a record of operator accountability for quality assurance. Hand scanners are a cost effective solution when barcodes located in various positions need to be accessed.
Integrated management systems will be required for order fulfilment, production, sortation and warehouse management applications. Inventory management systems are typically controlled by PC or PLC. The addition of a PLC gives the inventory management system greater flexibility as modern PLC's are semi intelligent and modular. In addition they posses additional communication links, making expansion or functional modification simple to achieve. A large system may be sub divided into networked groups each with their own PLC.