The manufacture of insulation rolls and batts is among the many diversified industries using LEWCO equipment.  Recent units built for a customer serving this industry included conveyors for three process lines.  Among the custom individual units were modular plastic belt conveyors, product reject paddles, and powered centering belts.  A portion of one process line is shown at right.

Each product reject paddle was mounted overhead, and was designed to sweep 40 lb. products off the side of the main process line at a rate of up to 20 per minute.  Special guide bearings were used to counter thrust loads and ensure long life.  Additional area guarding was added by the end user during installation.

The powered centering belts were designed to eliminate the product drag and potential rotation that would occur on a static face guide rail.  They ran at the same speed as the process line to gently center the product.  The centering belts were mounted on pivots at the infeed end, allowing the exit opening to be manually adjustable to accommodate various product types.

At left is one of the short wide modular plastic belt conveyors built for this customer.

Working with the customer throughout the design process ensured that expectations were met.  You can rely on LEWCO, Inc. for all of your standard or custom conveyor needs.

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Here’s a problem solver. The skewed roller conveyor will move product to one side, edge-aligning it and squaring it up at the same time. The chain box is capped with UHMW to allow the product to slide against it with reduced friction. Rollers are chain driven for positive drive.

Also present on this unit is a pneumatically actuated turning post, or “bump turn.” This post, when combined with the skewed rollers, will rotate the product 90 degrees and re-align it to the side. The pneumatic cylinder allows it to be disengaged when product does not need to be rotated. 

LEWCO replacement rollers are suitable for any existing brand of conveyor. We can match existing bearings, and any standard or special between frame dimensions.  Available but not shown in the linked detail drawings are options for sprockets or grooves.  Rollers can also be made with welded-in round axles for use with flange bearings or pillow blocks.  Sizes, construction, and bearing options can be seen here.

LEWCO manufactures heavy duty chain roller conveyor (CDLR) and right angle chain transfers (RAT) for heavy loads. For a recent order, LEWCO provided heavy duty CDLR and chain transfers for a customer’s 48″ x 90″, 6000 pound load being handled in a robotic integrated manufacturing cell. These large refractory-lined containers are brought in empty, and loaded by robot with hot parts. The LEWCO solution was our CDLR35, which incorporates 3-1/2″ diameter rollers in heavy structural frames; structural analysis of the rollers was performed at LEWCO to verify the selection. Commercial scissor lifts were used as the most cost-effective solution to lift the chain transfer and heavy load, helping to keep the overall project cost within the customer’s budget. 

In a subsequent operation this customer stages enough parts; three to a pallet, to batch fill an oven quickly by robot. LEWCO’s CDZA26 conveyor, Chain Driven Zone Accumulation with 2-5/8″ diameter rollers, was used in an over/under configuration to keep full pallets separated up top, and return empty pallets on the lower level. Pneumatic clutches are used to engage each zone as needed off the single motor driven “power” chain. LEWCO mounted and wired all zone photo eyes and solenoid valves per customer specifications. Commercial scissor lifts were again used at the ends to complete the loop. LEWCO also fabricated the pallets for this conveyor.