CODI Belts It Out - Accumulation Tables & Belts

CODI Conveyance Conversations Part 2 of 3

"Yeah, We Do That" with Jared is a blog series where CODI Manufacturing CEO Jared Jones shares his perspective on case conveying, beverage packaging equipment, and the real-world considerations that drive good system design.

In the last post, Jared talked about roller retrofits. In this, the second of a three-part series, Jared provides technical insight into belt selection, accumulation, corners, and the design decisions that actually affect performance and cost.

Q: What's the most common mistake you see in case conveyor projects?

Jared: Jumping to a solution before understanding the problem. A lot of people -- our customers and competitors alike -- skip that step entirely. And even when they do understand the problem, they're often not aware of how many ways there are to solve it. That's where things go sideways.

Accumulation is a good example. We get a lot of requests to install an enormous amount of it. Accumulation has its place, but it doesn't matter how much you have if you're going to fill it up in three to five minutes anyway. You're really just looking for enough to clear your packers or your upstream and downstream machines in the event of a stoppage.

Say a diverter switch table goes down. You need enough accumulation to keep cases moving through the system while you deal with it -- but that's a finite window, not a reason to build in hundreds of feet of accumulation. We size for what it takes to handle a typical changeover or short stoppage and move on. The industry got in the habit over many years of thinking more accumulation is always better. But if you do the actual math on how long you can run before you're down anyway, it's usually a matter of minutes. Beyond a certain point, more accumulation doesn't buy you efficiency -- it just buys you a longer wait before the same problem stops your line.

Q: How do you make sure cases aren't getting damaged while they're sitting in accumulation?

Jared: When cases sit in accumulation, the belt underneath is still moving. The rollers on the belt surface are what allow the cases to stay in place without being pushed -- they spin freely and absorb that driving force. The more rollers, the more that force gets distributed. Fewer rollers means more pressure building up against the cases. Get that wrong and you're either skewing cases or crushing them against each other, which creates jams, damaged packaging, and downstream problems at the palletizer.

One way to manage it is to stack two accumulation zones together. The first zone fills up and acts as a brake, slowing the incoming cases before they pile into the second zone. It works, but the controls have to be dialed in correctly. If the programming isn't right, you're not managing back pressure -- you're just building a more expensive way to damage cases.

Accumulation Table

Q: How do you think about belt selection for general transport?

Jared: Belt selection for general transport really depends on product weight, case width, and what support is actually needed. One thing I always look at is whether you really need a 12 or 14-inch wide belt when the case is running narrow edge leading. If you're supporting three-quarters of the package with a narrower belt, you may not need to go wider. And the cost difference is real: a 6-inch belt versus a 12-inch belt is twice as much belt. You pay for that in your linear footage price. We often recommend adding case centering and going to a narrower width -- it can make your general transport a very cost-effective one.

Q: Does the belt manufacturer actually matter?

Jared: At the end of the day, most transport belts are acetal and polypropylene with low friction built into the molded plastic. Combined with a UHMW or low-friction wear strip, you can get very similar performance out of different manufacturers without spending significantly more money. There's a lot of talk about what makes one belt better than another. Strip it back and most of them are doing the same thing.

Where it gets more complicated is when there's a master performance specification in a larger organization that dictates what belts are approved. That's a real consideration. Some customers don't care at all -- they give me the width, the price, and that's the decision. You can build it that way. The point is that there are often savings available if you're open to the conversation.

The other thing to think about is your spare parts inventory. If you have an established plant, do you really want to introduce a new belt type, or does it make more sense to stay with what you're already stocking? That question is worth asking before you spec something new.

Which belt option is right for your application?

Q: What's your take on corners, tap chain versus center flex belts?

Jared: For corners, we prefer a tap chain -- a narrow, linked chain belt that carries cases around the curve. They're simple, well-supported, the wear strips are easy to swap out, and we cut all our spare parts on the water jet so they're precise and ready to order when you need them.

For a long time there was a belief in the industry that switching to a wider, full-width belt on corners was going to be a major upgrade -- smoother transfers, more flexibility on the approach and exit. What we found is that the inside edge of the curve puts so much pressure on those wider belts that they wear down just as fast as a standard tap chain. You end up paying twice as much for a belt that's twice as wide and you're still running into the same limitations.

A good tap chain with a reasonable approach and exit length gets you the same result at a fraction of the cost. If you're committed to running a wider belt on a curve, the right way to do it is with a fixed curve section that has bearings built into it. That setup handles the stress properly and you'll actually get the performance you're paying for.

Q: Any final thoughts on belt selection before we move on?

Jared: The belt market has stabilized a lot over the last 20 years. There was a big push for a while on new belt styles and designs, but customers have largely settled on what works for their operation. The more important conversation is about matching the belt to the application -- transport, accumulation, inclines, corners -- each one has different requirements. A flat top that works great on a straight transport run is the wrong call on an incline with a slick lithographed case. Get the application right first, then select the belt. In the next post we'll get into some of those specific applications -- inclines, declines, case turning, and the controls and mechanical decisions that tie it all together.

Jared Jones is CEO of CODI Manufacturing. With more than 20 years of experience, multiple patents, and a track record of scaling the business through product development and operational leadership, he brings practical insight into the challenges and opportunities shaping modern manufacturing.

CODI Manufacturing designs and manufactures case conveyor systems for beverage packaging facilities. Want to learn more about getting started with a new or replacement conveyance system? Visit codimfg.com.