A control system for mechanical equipment is provided with: a manual operation mechanism provided with a minimum required number of operation switches and a mechanical equipment identification signal transmission unit for transmitting a mechanical equipment identification signal that identifies mechanical equipment; an operation assistance terminal in which the mechanical equipment identification signal received from the transmission unit is used as a basis to display a manual operation assistance screen including a manually operated device selection section and a control content display section that displays control content assigned to the operation switches of the manual operation mechanism for a selected manually operated device; and a control device that connects the control unit of an identified control target device and the operation switches of the manual operation mechanism by receiving a control target device switching signal identified by operation of the manually operated device selection section.

The invention relates to device, method and packaging facility having a transport section (17) for feeding article arrangements (5) in a transport direction (TR) to a packaging module (18). The transport section (17) comprises a transfer plate (15), on which the articles (2) of the article arrangements (5) are movable in a sliding manner. Located above the transfer plate (15) are pushing devices (16) for moving the articles (2) on the transfer plate (15), with the pushing devices (16) being movable in transport direction (TR) at least in some areas. The transport section (17) furthermore comprises outer guide elements (20) and inner guide elements (21) disposed on the transfer plate (15), with the outer guide elements (20) laterally delimiting the transport section (17) and, with the inner guide elements (21) being readjustable by at least one readjustment mechanism that is disposed at least partly below the transfer plate (15).

A tray feeding system having a buffer conveyor for trays including a belt with spaced apart free running rollers having a rotation axis perpendicular to the conveying direction. These rollers extend upward from the belt such that the trays partly rest on the rollers. A tray conveyor receiving end is adjacent to an outputting end of the buffer conveyor where items are placed into the trays by a tray filler. A roller interactor is positioned below and adjacent to the surface of the buffer conveyor belt at an outputting end to engage with the rollers at the outputting end area when the buffer conveyor belts move forward rotating the rollers positioned within the outputting end area accelerating the trays on the buffer conveyor within the outputting end area of the buffer conveyor towards the receiving end of the tray conveyor.

Various embodiments described herein relate to controlling an accumulation conveyor that comprises at least a first zone that is upstream of a second zone and the second zone that is upstream of a third zone. A second control module associated with the second zone receives a third feedback signal, indicating that a third sensor is blocked, from a third control module associated with the third zone. The second control module sets a second drive assembly associated with the second zone to a disengaged state, and receives a first signal from a first control module associated with the first zone. The first signal indicates that one of a first article having an irregular boundary or a second article having a regular boundary exits from the first zone. The second control module controls the second drive assembly and a second brake assembly based on the indication by the first signal.

A motorized drive roller conveyor includes an upstream zone and a downstream zone, with each zone having a drive roller, an idler roller that is driven by the drive roller, and a sensor. The upstream zone and the downstream zone are controlled by a card, which measures a gap between a first item on the conveyor and a second item on the conveyor by beginning a counter when a trailing edge of the first item passes the sensor of the upstream zone and stopping the counter when a leading edge of the second item passes the sensor of the upstream zone to generate a counter value. If the first item is stopped in the downstream zone, the card of the upstream zone causes the drive roller of the upstream zone to advance the second item into the downstream zone for a distance derived from the counter value before stopping the transportation of the second item.

A conveying device has an accumulation area for accumulating objects, and an operating method operates the conveying device. Using a measuring device, the object rear edge of a first object and the object front edge of a second object which follows the first object are detected. The position of the objects is determined using rotation signals from the drives of conveyor elements. For the second object, a continuous curve of a speed reduction of a target speed is calculated, wherein the calculated stop position of the object front edge of the second object is located at the position of the object rear edge of the stopped first object, or between the object front edge of the stopped first object and the object rear edge of the stopped first object. Subsequently, the second object is moved and stopped using the conveyor elements on the basis of the calculated speed reduction.

A belt drive assembly for driving at least one tread roller of a belt-driven live roller conveyor and associated methods are provided that uses an electrically actuated assembly to raise and lower a belt into and out of engagement with tread rollers to selectively transport or accumulate product. The assembly includes a stationary frame having a magnet and a movable frame having an attractant plate, or vice versa. The magnet may be an electromagnet or a solenoid. The movable frame is movable with respect to the stationary frame, such that when an electric current is applied to the magnet, the magnet and the attractant plate are magnetically drawn to each other and cause the movable frame to move towards a respective portion of the stationary frame to place the belt drive assembly in a driving configuration in which at least one tread roller of the conveyor in engaged.

Devices and methods for buffering articles may include use of an infeed conveyor, an outfeed conveyor, and at least two accumulation conveyors defining a path extending between the infeed conveyor and the outfeed conveyor. Each accumulation conveyor includes an entrance portion adjacent the infeed conveyor for receiving articles from the infeed conveyor and an exit portion adjacent the outfeed conveyor for delivering articles to the outfeed conveyor.

A roller including a roller body in a cylindrical form. The roller body comprises at least partially of a borosilicate glass material.

An accumulator has a control system for controlling motion of a plurality of buckets on a continuous loop and logs traversing on a log transfer device. The log transfer device delivers a log from an entrance of the log transfer device to a bucket infeed on the accumulator. The bucket infeed receives a log from the log transfer device and allows a bucket to receive the log from the log transfer device. A time for the log to move from the entrance of the log transfer device to the bucket infeed is determined. Based on the time for the log to move from the entrance of the log transfer device to the bucket infeed, the control system controls the accumulator drive to move the continuous loop such that a bucket in the plurality of buckets is positioned at the bucket infeed with sufficient time to allow the bucket to receive the log from the log transfer device.