Conveyor (object)
With the object Conveyor you can model a conveyor system or a part thereof. As opposed to the other material flow objects, Plant Simulation uses the actual Length, which you enter, during your simulation run. The Conveyor transports a part along its entire length with a constant speed. A part cannot pass another part moving along in front of it. If you do not enter an exit control, the Conveyor divides the MUs equally among the successors it is connected to.
In case the preceding part cannot exit the Conveyor, the check box Accumulating sets if succeeding MUs may move up, so that they are located front to back to each other, or if they will retain their distance to each other.
When moving the part from Conveyor to Conveyor,Plant Simulation moves it on continually, i.e., it only moves the front of the part on to the successor, while the remainder of the part follows with the speed you set as the Speed. When the transport speeds differ, Plant Simulation uses the speed of the Conveyor, on which the Booking point length of the part is located.
When moving a part onto a point-oriented object, such as onto a Station or a ParallelStation, the Conveyor always moves the part in its entirety, i.e., the part is then located on that object as a whole, not only its front section.
You can also enter the MU distance between parts on the Conveyor. This is the distance between the end of the part that is located on the Conveyor and the beginning of the next part that wants to enter. When no further parts arrive, the Conveyor stops once the distance has been reached. As soon as the next part arrives, it starts to transport parts again. The default value -1 means that the Conveyor does not use an MU distance.
When the preceding Conveyor transports parts faster than the conveyor which uses a gap, the MU distance can become smaller. This happens because the entering part will be transported with a greater speed until its booking point is located on the conveyor which uses a gap.
You can insert the Conveyor into a Frame:
As a curve, which is the default setting, compare Tab Curve.
By inserting any sequence of curved segments and straight segments, you can realistically model curved conveyor systems on which the parts move.
With its icon, when you deactivate Curve mode by clearing the check box
. Then, it looks like this 
. To change the width/height of the icon, open the dialog of the object and type in the Curve width on the tab Curve. Then, it looks like this
.You can control how often the part is shown on the Conveyor with the setting Animate every x-th pixel. When you insert the Conveyor with its icon
, the Number of Animation Events controls these steps.
To add the Conveyor to your simulation model, click 
Manage Class Library > Basic Objects > MaterialFlow > Conveyor on the Home ribbon tab.
Compare the sample models: Click the Window ribbon tab, click Start Page > Getting Started > Example Models and click Small Examples. Then, select the respective Category, the Topic, and the Example in the dialog Examples Collection and click Open Model.
Related Topics
Modeling a Transport System with Active Objects of Type Conveyor | |