Conveyor accumulation and display

I am new to Flexsim and have the following questions (please also reference the attachment),

1. Is it possible to have a conveyor release items 5 at a time?
I tried using the pull feature from a second conveyor based on the example from the manual and could not make it work. I also tried the photoeye without success.

2. When transferring items from conveyors A to B, why is it that some items transition to conveyor B from the end while others smoothly transition right at the conveyor joint.

Thanks for your help.

Hello Wilfredo,

the main problem with standard conveyor class is the closed event list, which is created on entry for every single item. Then there exists an event which defines the time when the item leaves the conveyor. You cannot transfer an item by any other command or function before this time, because this event will happen.
You can tweak the conveyor a bit. You can set the spacing rule to spacing value. The spacing value can be zero too. If your 5 items enter the conveyor at the same time they all can leave the conveyor at the same time, too. But it looks like only one item is on the conveyor. You can modify the look a bit, if change the shape location of the involved items, as though the items are separated or travel in a row. Or you can set the size of the first item to the length of the complete traveling batch. On Exit you change its size back.
But you should treat the next entering item, that it does not interfere with the previous item.
Another workaround is to use more conveyor objects in a line. If you intend that 5 items leave the conveyor at a maximum, you place 5 conveyor in a line with the length of the items at the exit location. If the conveying finishes each items is on a different conveyor, then you sent the items to another exit port than to the next conveyor. It looks like 5 items leaving a conveyor at the same time.
If you have learned and played a bit more with flexsim, you can build an own behaviour in the basic conveyor object. In this object you can set the entering location, the exit location and other parameters individually.

As you see it isn't an easy way to manipulate a conveyor object.
Therefore exists a Conveyor module (still Beta status), which has a more realistic and variable behaviour.

Jörg

Wilfredo,
As Jorg mentioned, there is a new conveyor module, set to be released in the next few weeks. One feature in this module is to toggle a conveyor as a "slug builder", and you can easily configure it to build slugs of 5 items each and then release the slug. This module also does a much better job of simulating transfers between conveyors.
Regards,
Anthony Johnson