Equipment: Cross Belt Sorter
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Description
Cross-belt Sorters transports products on belts placed on islands. There can be many belts per island.
A cross-belt sorter is configured for exit point by create a Divert Rule for each exit point. The user can then entirely customize which products are pushed on each exit point independently.
Products are inducted to a sorter from a conveyor with Operational Mode set to “Inductor”.
If Allocation Points are present on the sorter, belts are reserved for specific inductions as they pass by the allocations points. Inductions managed by an allocation point can only induct products on belts reserved for itself or inductions that are upstream. For example:
- Allocation point manages 3 induction A, B and C, with A being the most upstream induction: each free belt passing by the allocation point will be assigned to A, B and C in round robin style: A, B, C, A, B etc.
If A doesn’t use a belt, this belt is usable by B or C, and if B doesn’t use a belt, the belt is usable by C.
Large products: if a product apparent width along the induction path is larger than the oversize threshold, the allocation point will book the first available two consecutive belts for this induction, and the product will be inducted at the center of the two belts.
If the product apparent width is larger than the belt width + oversize threshold, the product will not be inducted at all.
Creation
From the Toolbox, simply drag and drop a cross-belt Sorter into the simulation.
Access
From the Project Explorer > Equipments > Cross Belt Sorter.
Or directly by clicking on the cross-belt Sorter in the simulation.
Configuring Allocation Points and Exit Points
Chute Full
When a chute property Full is true, the sorter won’t divert products into the chute regardless of the divert rule evaluation result.
Properties
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Name | The unique name for this equipment. Default = CrossBeltSorterX where X is the next incremental number of Cross Belt Sorters. |
| Alias | Free form text for an Alias name for this equipment. |
| Type | Read only type identifier. Always Cross Belt Sorter. |
| Parent | The Parent equipment this is ‘attached’ to. |
| Running | Check box showing the running state and allowing the Sorter to be stopped or started manually. (DEPRECATED) |
| Target Speed | Default = 2 (metres/sec) The speed the transporter runs at (metres/sec). or the speed it reached while accelerating. |
| StartStopRequest | Default = True Then the equipment accelerate (based on ‘Acceleration’ value) in order to reach the ‘Target Speed’.And when is set to false,then the equipment decelerate (based on ‘Deceleration’ value) in order to reach a speed = 0. |
| AccelerationEnabled | Default = off When enabled, the acceleration parameters available are; |
| Mode | Default = ‘Use Time (in seconds)’ Allows the selection of the acceleration time in Speed/Time in the units chosen when the project was created (metres or feet) or a simple time in seconds to reach the speed. The Mode setting affects both Acceleration and Deceleration. |
| Acceleration | The acceleration speed in the units chosen when the project was created (metres or feet) per second squared. |
| Deceleration | The deceleration speed in the units chosen when the project was created (metres or feet) per second squared. |
| Enable Encoder | To enable calculation for distance travelled by current transporter. |
| Max Value | Only visible when Encoder is enabled. Max value for distance travelled by current transporter, when transporter reaches to max value, distance travelled counter will restart from 0. |
| Belt Speed | Default = 1 (metres/sec) The speed the belt runs at (metres/sec). |
| Oversize Threshold | If a product apparent width is larger than the oversize threshold, it is inducted on two belts. If it’s apparent width is larger than the belt width + oversize threshold, the product will not be inducted. |
| Product Count (Read only) | Total number of products currently on the sorter. |
| Number of Occupied Islands (Read only) | An island is occupied if all belts on the island are occupied. |
| Number of Occupied Belts (Read only) | A belt is occupied if a product is placed on the belt. |
| Exit Points | List of equipment to send product to when the conditions of the assigned Divert rule is met. See “Divert Rule”. |
| Allocation Points | List of positions on the sorter where belts are reserved for specific inductions. |
| Reference Island | Default = 1 An Island number that identifies the distance (in islands) from the Sorter origin to use as the reference point for syncronisation. |
| Reference Offset | Default = 0 The distance from the Sorter originin the units chosen when the project was created (metres or feet) to use as the reference point for syncronisation. The value entered must be equal to or less than the ‘Total length’ value. |
Islands
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Island Height | Height in metres of the islands. |
| Island Width | Width in metres of the island. (orthogonal to the direction of travel) |
| Island length | Length in metres of the island along the direction of travel. This must be larger than the Belt Width multiplied by the number of belts per island. |
| Island Gap Size | Gap between islands in metres. |
| Number of Island (read only) | Calculated based on the total Length, Island Length and Island Gap size properties. |
Belts
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Belt width (metres) | Width of the belt along the direction of travel. |
| Number of Belt per Island | Value must be so that Nb Belt * Belt Width < Island Length. |
Sections
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Sections | A list of sections defining the path of the sorter. If Arc is zero, the section is straight. If Arc is not zero the section will be curved and is defined by the Arc and length (metres) properties. |
| Total Length | Read only, in metres. Total length of the path of the sorter. Calculated based on the section definitions. |
Visual
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Selectable | Set to ticked so this equipment can be selected. Untick if this equipment can not be selected. |
| Layer | Default = Background Assign a layer to this equipment to allow it to be hidden when the layer is not visible. |
| Base | Allows a color and visible property to be set for the base. |
| Islands | Allows a color and visible property to be set for the Islands. |
| Belts | Allows the visible property to be set for the belts. |
| Belt number label start from 0 | A true or false value indicating whether the belt number label starts from zero or 1. |
Note: All trays are identified on the sorter by an index number.
This number is derived as follows :
trayIndex = Displayed tray number - 1