Conveyor Simulations

I am a new flexsim user (newest software version) and this is also my first post in the forums. I have been working with the program for 3-4 weeks now on a part time basis. The company I work for does material handling. All we do is conveyors, conyeyors, and more conveyors. My job duties here are Systems Design, Pricing/Estimating, Drafting, and now Animation/Simulation. I will be going to the training session this month which will hopefully answer some questions on the limits of the conveyor side of the program.

I have tons of questions that will get answered in time but I wanted get some opinions to see if I am heading in the right direction with the basics. Everything I have done has been through trial and error. I have done nothing with custom code and am having a difficult time understanding creating code.

Attached are some of the conveyor layouts in Flexsim that we have created. I have an ASRS system, a pick and pass setup, and a tote handling system. We have found the user posts in the forum to be helpful. But, I wish there was more posts on the conveyor side of things along with more Library objects for conveyor in Flexsim.

Thanks,

Ron

Ron,

It's great to have you here in the forum. You will quickly find that Flexsim is a powerful program that is very flexible. You mentioned that you would like to know a little bit more about the conveyors. Do you have any specific questions about them? Or perhaps you could describe how you are hoping to use them? I think you will be surprised at how much you will be able to do with the current conveyor objects.

Dustin Derrick
Flexsim Support

Dustin thanks for your post

example: In the pick and pass, the side wings are supposed to be gravity conveyor that the operators pick to. Is there a way to make gravity conveyor that and operator picks to and pushes the item down the line?

I cheated it in the layout by making an accumulator run real slow so it appears to flow like gravity then have the operator interact with combiners to simulate picking and passing.

another example in the pick and pass simulation: The merge sort is being used as a 90 degree transfer. Is there a way to slow down the transfer speed? Have the the merge sort conveyor running at .91 which would be 180 feet per min and have it transfer off at .46 or 90 feet per min.? We are pulling a gap on the way into it to compensate for the slower divert time. Problem is visually it shoots over at the .91 which is not true for a transfer. I'm worried that it is increasing my through put which skews our rate calculations.

These are just a couple of many questions I have. I feel bad for you guys when I get out to Utah in a couple of week. Hahaha!

Thanks,

Ron

Ron,

What you are describing sounds a lot like the "basic conveyor" which we have in production right now. We currently have a beta version (which has a couple bugs) if you are interested. It is being developed exactly for the use of gravity conveyors and other similar situations.

As for the transitions of the mergesort, the best idea I can think of would be to place a conveyor of a slower speed in between the mergesort and the next conveyor. (if you want this could be hidden by checking the show 3D shape box on the general tab of the properties page) This conveyor could act as the transition and would also give the slower movement that you are seeking (set its speed to whatever you want).

Interested. How do I obtain this beta conveyor?

Execute this code in a script window, and it will make a basic conveyor:

createinstance(node("/BasicConveyor",library()),model());

You can find the latest "basic conveyor" here:
http://www.flexsim.com/community/for...read.php?t=442

With this one, you can just drag it out into your model from the user library.