When an outdoor gear manufacturer developed a new concept for manufacturing ice substitutes and handling scrap plastic, it needed several special conveyor systems to bring it to fruition. After using traditional conveyors for years, engineers at the facility wanted conveyors that were adaptable to other projects because they felt that using conveyors designed for other tasks compromised the success of the operation.
After some research, the company decided that DynaCon modular conveyors were best for the new concept.
Genuine modular conveyors are custom conveyor systems that use standard components to configure and reconfigure complete systems by removing, inserting or exchanging modules that are available in lengths as short as 6 inches permitting incremental changes.
“They wanted to be sure that the plastic would not form to the conveyors as can sometimes happen with other conveyors when you put them under molding machines,” says Jill Batka, president of Dynamic Conveyor Corp., which produces DynaCon conveyor systems for the plastics, packaging, automotive and medical industries.
A representative from the company took a small conveyor sample to the plant, installed it with the engineers and poured hot plastic on it, proving it was not be a problem.
Almost immediately after receiving the conveyor systems, the flexibility of DynaCon conveyors systems became evident. Since this was an entirely new concept, engineers had found a way to make it more efficient, which eliminated the need for one of the six conveyors. With another type of conveyor, the outdoor gear manufacturer would have paid for something that was not usable, but with the reconfigurable conveyor technology, engineers could adapt the conveyor for use in another area.
With a few minor changes and a couple of additional components, the original flat modular conveyor converted into a custom z-style conveyor with a 45-degree angle at minimal cost.
Standard DynaCon conveyor system packages include all straight, incline, decline, and radius turn modules as well as drive flights, retaining walls, and legs.
A variety of primary accessory modules such as metal detection, box filling, cooling tunnels, separators, and water bath tanks for cooling products used with the reconfigurable conveyor technology can be added to create systems that are more progressive.
Since the outdoor gear manufacturer’s facility takes scrap from the molding process and conveys it to a grinding unit and then back into the system, DynaCon suggested the inclusion of a metal detection module to prevent metal being reintroduced into molding machines.
“They told us that when shavings enter the machinery, a significant tear-down of the equipment to rid the machine of the metal would take an entire day, and the unit has already paid for itself more than once,” says Batka.
Now that the company has seen how well the conveyors adapt to their process it is looking to add flow through belt with a cooling fan to cool to further increase efficiency.
For more information, please visit www.dynamicconveyor.com.