Gapping Belt Induction Conveyors For Use Before Sortation Equipment

Gapping belt induction conveyor (Gappers) is used when gaps need to be pulled between incoming product to assure a good read & sort prior to being put through label applicators or printers, box strappers, barcode scanners, motion scales & the sorter. By accelerating or decelerating gapping belt conveyor you maximize the throughput and minimize the gap between products entering the sorter.

Bastian Material Handling has a strong history of gapping belt induction conveyor installtions across many industries. Let us help you achieve new levels of automated sortation accuracy.

How Gapper Conveyor Sorters Work
Benefits
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Products Sorted
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Budgetary Pricing

How Gapping Belt Induction Conveyor Sorters (Gappers) For Induction Work

When exiting a merge and prior to scanning and sorting, cartons must be separated by gaps to assure good barcode reads & sortation. A gapper consists of two conveyors operating at a slightly greater speed than the incoming flow of cartons, which “pulls a gap” between adjacent cartons. Historically, these gaps have been in the range of 12 to 18 inches, but with advanced sorters coming on, the gaps are shrinking to 8 inches or less. Gapping Belt conveyor has the ability to do both dynamic and static gapping based on software and control systems.

In “Blow Through” gapping, the gapper conveyors operate at a fixed speed and the ratio between the conveyors is fixed. The “pitch”, or distance between the leading edges of the products, tends to be a fixed distance. If the application has a wide variance between small and large boxes, wide gaps can occur. This is possible wasted space and a reduction in sorter throughput.

In “gap optimization” gapping, the distance between incoming boxes is sensed and conveyor speed is quickly accelerated or decelerated, resulting in a consistent gap size. This allows you to get the maximum throughput and performance from your sorter.

Gapper Conveyor Sorter Benefits

Gapping belt conveyors create an appropriately sized gap between products to ensure that down-stream processes such as the read rate during bar-code or photo eye scanning and sortation occur efficiently and with minimal errors.