Commercial Tent Rentals & Sales Limited is the largest established tent rental company in Eastern Canada. As Atlantic Canada’s leading supplier of tents, their inventory ranges from sizes suited to a backyard barbecue for family and friends to a sit-down dinner for thousands.

They contacted Pacline after they saw a similar system Pacline had installed at another facility and wanted to duplicate it at their own. Essentially, they wanted to automate their tent drying process as their current process was to manually dry the tents and place them on clothing lines that hung throughout the facility.

The Challenge

The system needed to be ceiling hung with no floor supports. However, the facility had a sloped roof which meant the conveyor system needed to be hung from the highest point down to operator height (lowest point on system). Pacline was able to accommodate the long 27’ foot drop by breaking the supports into 2 different sections thus in the end not needing any floor support.

Ceiling supports to clear up floor space

The Solution

Pacline installed a 700-foot PAC-LINE™ enclosed track conveyor system to automate their tent drying process. The new process allows tents to be cleaned in an industrial washer then placed onto the conveyor system from the load point by an operator.

Once the tent is placed onto the system it is moved up into the ceiling area to air dry, which takes approximately one day. When the tents are fully air dried, they are brought back down using  to the unload area which is located by the dock door. Operators can now utilize the floor space underneath the conveyor, which was obstructed by clothing lines before.

The Results

Tents of a variety of sizes being air dried

Pacline was able to increase Commercial Tent Rentals & Sales Limited’s productivity and efficiency through automating their manual tent drying process and thus reducing operator walking time. As well the ceiling hung tent drying conveyor system allowed them to free up valuable floor space that was taken up by their previous manual process.

Under-body frame parts for the Auto Industry are successfully handled on this Pacline Overhead Conveyor. These irregular- shaped metal stampings convey smoothly between welding operations by being handled on the PAC-LINE™ enclosed track overhead conveyor as shown.

Two 600 ft. long systems in a two-tier formation provide a buffer-zone for accumulation using a minimum of floor space. The PAC-LINE™ Conveyor chain travels inside the tubular conveyor track. Pendants are standard on 6-inch centers. The enclosed-track design protects the chain. Lubricant is kept clean; free of abrasive atmospheric dust and other contaminants.

Small-radius curves for horizontal and vertical or sideways and up and down travel are standard. Roller turns, traction wheels, or sprockets common with I-beam type conveyors are not necessary. This promotes operator safety by reducing the number of pinch points, and significantly lowers the amount of maintenance required.

The conveyor can be powered for continuous or intermittent variable speed travel. For additional information on your specific requirements, contact us.

Overhead Conveyor Keeps Floor Space Clear
Metalworking Production and Purchasing, 1988

Irregular metal stampings, such as these under-body frame parts for the auto industry, are successfully handled and transported between welding operations by an overhead conveyor. Establishment of a buffer zone allows for accumulation and storage of parts.

With the conveyor mounted overhead, little floor space is used and operator movement in the production area is not blocked. Safety, orderly handling and good visual inspection of parts are important added advantages. The conveyor chain travels within and is protected by a tubular track, which keeps the lubricant clean and free from abrasive atmospheric dust and other contaminants.

Small radius curves for both horizontal and up and down travel are standard. Roller turns, traction wheels, or sprockets – common with I-beam type conveyors – are not necessary, providing an important safety feature. Conveyors can be powered for continuous or intermittent variable speed travel.

The installation shown here at P&F Tool and Die in Concord, Ontario, carries automotive parts suspended by pendants on six-inch centers. It was supplied and installed by Pacline Corporation of Mississauga, who will be exhibiting their conveyor systems at The Industrial Production Show in Toronto from October 11th to 14th.

Three-Tier buffer zone accumulation of instrument panels for just in time shipment.

Some 4,500 feet of overhead conveyor at Guelph Products, Guelph, Ontario, efficiently handle instrument panels for just-in-time (JIT) shipment to their main Chrysler assembly plant at Brampton, Ontario.

Five overhead conveyors from Pacline Corporation, Mississauga, Ontario, convey instrument panels, door panels and steering columns for the Chrysler Eagle Premier through the many manufacturing and assembly stages.

Buffer zone accumulation is accomplished in a three-tier area 85 ft. by 30 ft. by 24 ft. high. Divided into two sections, the lower level accumulation instrument panels between the first and second sub-assembly stages. The two upper levels are the storage line holding up to 1 ½ days of sub-assembled panels.

Vehicle Build Orders (VBOs) arrive by computer printout from the Brampton plant. Panels are transferred to the final assembly line for customized assembly, assuring 4-hour JIT delivery to the main plant.

An enclosed track design, with the conveyor chain traveling inside the round tubular conveyor track, protects the chain and lubricant. Small radius curves for horizontal and vertical travel are standard, fitting the conveyor into space saving layouts.

Alemite Oil Mist Lubricators were installed on each of the five conveyors. Each lubricator has three jets, which direct an extremely fine oil mist to the conveyor chain, precisely where required. Automatic timers were supplied with each lubricator.

The panels are removed from the third-level storage to where the VBOs are received and the operator transfers the instrument panels to the final assembly conveyor.

Material Handling Engineering July, 1990

Kitchen Kuttings is a small business located in the Mennonite community of Elmira, Ontario. Owned by three Old Order Mennonite women, Kitchen Kuttings began as a small shop selling cheese and homemade products such as jams, pickles, maple syrup and their own homemade summer sausage. As their business grew so did the demand for their sausages and the need to produce them in larger quantities.

To handle the increased sausage production, a new meat curing facility was planned. Kitchen Kuttings needed a way to dry up to 1,800 sausages at a time with a possible future expansion of 3,000 sausages. At this volume, any manual system of racking would be very cumbersome, labor intensive and difficult to manage.

The construction company for Kitchen Kuttings contacted Pacline initially with an interest in the PAC-MAX™ heavy duty conveyor, which could hold very large carriers with numerous sausages. The layout they were suggesting involved a standard back and forth ‘snaking’ conveyor.
After discussing the application and capacity goals with Pacline engineers, Pacline suggested a system using their PAC-LINE™ enclosed track conveyor with 8 sausages per foot of conveyor. The conveyor layout would be designed in a spiral type arrangement where the conveyor track would wrap around on itself.

This set up was an ideal way to increase the storage density of the system. By utilizing this spiral design and some innovative support structures, it was possible to carry the entire 1,800 sausages on an upper level to meet the required sausage capacity. (A conveyor run was incorporated to extend down to the load area). This left the lower area of the drying facility open for storage. To address the need for increased capacity in the future, a second level can be added (below the first level) which will allow for over 3,000 sausages.

By using 3 take-up units on the 230 foot system, Pacline was able to add forward and reverse controls to cut waiting time in half when positioning the conveyor for loading and unloading. While the Pacline conveyor system brings a new level of efficiency to this traditional business, the Mennonite owners still maintain the same high standard of homemade quality in every sausage they make.

Nearly 1 mile of overhead, enclosed conveyor track at Guelph Products links sequential manufacturing steps and provides transport of parts to a just-in-time (JIT) staging area prior to shipment.

The track is installed at Geulph Products’ 200,000 sq. ft. manufacturing plant in Guelph Products, Ontario, located 45 miles from Chrysler’s main assembly plant in Bramalea, Ontario. Guelph, a division of Chrysler, manufactures instrument panels, door panels and steering columns for the Chrysler Eagle Premier.

To streamline the productions process, the plant partially assembles 350 instrument panels daily. The 25 lb. panels are maintained up to 1-1/2 days prior to final assembly and shipment to the main vehicle assembly line.

Providing continuous flow

The PAC-LINE™ conveyor system provides continuous flow of parts from a preliminary manufacturing area, through processing and subassembly stages, to the storage and accumulation area. Maximum conveyor travel speed is 24 feet per minute.

The system consists of four individual conveyor lines for paint, wash storage accumulation, and storage and delivery. Each line performs an important function in the manufacturing process, explains Dick Carter, maintenance superintendent.

The 700 sq. ft. long paint line transports panel components through a spray booth where a protective coating is applied to the parts. Special fixtures mounted on 24″ centers carry the vinyl instrument panel skins along the line. A separate 130 ft. long line processes smaller parts. The enclosed track design prevents the coating from reaching the conveyor chain or bearings.

The 700 ft. long wash line conveys the panels through a ceiling mounted wash tunnel. The automated line keeps the parts clean by minimizing manual handling.

The three-tier storage accumulation line provides temporary storage for up to 500 panels, or about 1-1/2 days production. Floor area for the space-saving storage bank is only 85 ft. by 30 ft. “The track’s tight turning radius, and the multi-level design enabled us to save space,” says Carter.

The lower level of the bank provides a buffer zone for panel components between manufacturing operations. The upper level, known as the “storage and delivery line”, serves as a JIT staging area.

Computers in Bramalea update vehicle build schedules continuously, advising Guelph what parts are needed and when. “When the vehicle build order (VBO) comes through,” says Carter, “we have 4 hours to get the parts to the main vehicle assembly line in Bramalea.” Once a panel is assigned to a specific VBO, it is removed from the staging line and taken to the finishing area for final assembly and shipment to Bramalea.

Published in Modern Materials Handling, December 1988

In both manufacturing and warehousing, workers are constantly challenged with minimizing floor space requirements while maximizing storage capacity. Typical solutions may include installing in a few extra racks at the end of a busy aisleway, double-stacking skids on already-filled shelves or narrowing aisleways to place more product on the floor. In doing so, they must still safely maneuver and coordinate a multitude of forklifts around blind corners, and across pedestrian walkways, and track storage locations, which are constantly changing due to lack of space and shuffling of skids in small spaces.

The Challenge

This particular company was one of several located on Toyota’s supplier campus. They had been selected by Toyota to supply the foam seat cushions for the Tundra pickup truck. These foam seat cushions are produced through a molding process that involves a 90-minute cure time. During the cure time, the cushions must sit at room temperature with minimal handling to ensure a top quality product.

The Toyota seat supplier needed a solution that would not only minimize handling during transport and curing but also store up to 2,600 parts during curing. In addition, since much of the floor space in the production facility was already allotted for other process machinery, there was very little space left for the curing and storage process.

The PACLINE CONVEYOR Solution

In many manufacturing environments, such as this one, the space below the ceiling trusses, light fixtures, piping and HVAC and above the floor machinery is unused. Since most operations are conducted on or close to the ground level, this vast amount of space is typically wasted.

For this project, PACLINE supplied 2,200 feet of the PAC-LINE™ monorail conveyor with 740 custom-made parts carriers. The conveyor was ceiling-hung to take advantage of the unused overhead space and was designed to transport parts from the foam machine to the next step in the process while providing the correct amount of curing time.

Due to the limited floor space, the use of racks and increased forklift traffic were not an option and they would disrupt the flow of work far too much. Even if floor space for such racking had existed, such handling and increased forklift traffic would have required additional operators, creating a number of safety issues.

With the minimum 90-minute curing time, the customer would have required multiple custom racks for storage and a system to track the curing time of each rack. The PACLINE overhead conveyor system allowed for FIFO (first in, first out) operation to ensure the cure time was met, without any special tracking method. Operators were able to focus on molding parts without worrying about handling, storage or transportation.

PACLINE’s conveyor layout provided a compact product loading area at floor level.  The conveyor then transported the foam cushions along a zig-zag path just below the ceiling, before bringing them back to floor level for unloading. As the entire conveyor was hung from the ceiling trusses, the floor was left completely free of support posts or any other obstacles.

Approximately 400 square feet of space was employed for a small loading area, as well as an extended unloading area that supplied parts to multiple operators. Had only one unload operator been required, the floor space requirement could have been reduced to only 100 square feet.

As the building had been newly constructed, PACLINE was able to install their modular, bolt-together overhead conveyor quickly, prior to floor machinery being installed. The floor machinery contractors were able to install their equipment unhindered by the ceiling-hung conveyor mounted above them.

Results

PACLINE was able to meet all of the needs of the seat manufacturer with their PAC-LINE™ enclosed track conveyor system which was ceiling-mounted and designed to handle 2,600 parts with only 400 square feet of floor space!

The system was successfully installed – on time and under budget – and fully adhered to both the seat supplier and Toyota’s stringent requirements and codes.