Common conveyor drives

Abstract

In the preceding chapters you were introduced to various types and configurations of belts. The heart of a conveyor, however, is the drive. It brings the conveyor to life.

Three-phase asynchronous motors are one frequently used type of drive.

They can easily be connected to a local three-phase network or to a variable frequency drive (VFD) to change their rotational speed.

Single-phase capacitor motors are also still used in light applications, such as conveyor belts at supermarket checkouts.

These drives only make sense if no three-phase network is available and it is not possible to use a VFD. This technology is already obsolete for most industrial applications.

Since the prices for VFD electronics have become increasingly more affordable in recent years, more and more synchronous servomotors are emerging on the market, which now enable conveyor applications that seemed unthinkable in the past.

Synchronous servomotors are extremely energy-efficient, dynamic and versatile. The future of conveyor technology lies with synchronous servomotors on account of their extremely short acceleration and deceleration times, very broad speed control ranges and high power densities.

Two types of motor currently dominate modern intralogistics:

The drum motor, which can be integrated almost invisibly into a conveyor system and is therefore simply overlooked by many people, and the conspicuous shaft-mounted geared motors, which are mounted on the side of or beneath a conveyor belt assembly and drive a drive pulley.