The Inertia of Conveyor Technology
‘The Inertia of Conveyor Technology’ by Heather Kemmler
Behind airport departure counters lies a sea of conveyors, motors and sensors that navigate luggage safely to aircrafts in waiting. Most baggage handling systems (BHS) in the modern world guide luggage using gear-motors and belt-driven conveyor designs and wield inordinate amounts of electrical energy to grapple with gravity daily. No matter the common cost of a kilowatt, the disproportionate amount of energy necessary to transport bags using this method can be compared to that of horse-drawn wagons before the internal combustion engine. The technology is available to reduce costs and improve efficiency of conveyor systems, the method of introducing this systemic change is to be determined.
Think of a roller conveyor in a shipping warehouse, imagine swiping your hand across several rollers and watching as they spin until you intervene or get tired of counting the time that has passed. Imagine the amount of energy needed to push a heavy package forward on this conveyor, to send it drifting forward a dozen feet until its inertia is reduced, and gravity stops it from proceeding on its path. Now think of an industrial belt conveyor, its belt made of rubber with a texturized surface to grip objects, tensioned tight on two rollers with a pulley, and fashioned with teeth on its underside to grip a gear-motor cog without slipping. Imagine trying to push the belt forward with your hand, the belt remaining unyielding as its pulley is tensioned too tight to allow manual manipulation. The amount of energy needed to move the same heavy package on the belt conveyor far exceeds that of the roller conveyor, but control over roller conveyors has yet to be successfully automated in the baggage handling industry.
The complexities of moving a checked bag from a ticket counter at an airport, through a security inspection, and to the correct passenger's aircraft have been thoroughly explored and accounted for in the twenty-first century. The next logical step succeeding BHS implementation and development is BHS refinement. Our biggest hurdle to come is to reduce BHS power consumption by balancing our energy scales (which have been tipped by kinetic energy since 1908 when Hymie Goddard invented the roller conveyor).
Foreseeable BHS developments most definitely include machine learning, or artificial intelligence (AI), and robotics. Other possible improvements include adapting in-wheel motors to conveyor-line production needs, incorporating industrial intelligent motor control centers (iiMCC) to BHS design, and use of hybrid-motor technology. The eventual progress of conveyor system technologies will most likely entail a combination of these technologies. Many benefits will follow integrating new technologies to conveyor systems, including reduced error rates, reduction of energy costs, and reduction of labor costs.
Advances in robotics prove to reduce errors – where a human may make a mistake or forget something, a robot will always remember the correct action it is told to take. Central to reduction of energy costs are emerging hybrid-motor design developments. The American Council for Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) has reported advances in AC motor design that will combine induction motors with permanent magnet (PM) synchronous technologies, and achieve efficiency performance levels beyond current National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) premium efficiency criteria. PM motors also decrease materials costs when moving increased loads, as their use of magnetic braking systems reduce wear on coupling parts, reducing motor repair times and the amount of replacement parts needed.
I know – at the mere mention of AI, images of mechanical smart-arms come to mind, ushering and adjusting bags with ease, akin to a scene in a Philip K. Dick novel. While robotics and motor technologies develop, their role in mainstream industry will surely take longer to integrate world-wide and industry-wide. iiMCC may be the most readily available technology to start developing, as the use of general motor control technologies dominates current industrial conveyor markets. Of course, any change in process will require increased involvement of management in operator training, equipment upgrading, and resilience related to process development. Kelly Richard and Trevor DaRin, hosts of Rockwell Automation Management Perspectives podcast, cover emerging industrial tech topics often. Pertaining to conversation on wider use of ‘smart factories,’ Trevor proclaims
‘In the coming days, weeks, and months, we will be working closely with our team members to further improve our understanding of the challenges they face, and to explain related opportunities in ever more detail.’
The task at hand, to control and direct the potential energy stored in the weight of your suitcase, creates a world of possibilities for this generation's engineers and innovators to traverse. Our programmers have a grip on the pattern recognition wheelhouse. Robotic process automation has been harnessed. The future of mainstream conveyor tech is waiting to be recast.