Conveyor Applications

Masterlock Doubles Throughput with Hytrol

Masterlock’s main objective when they opened a new facility in Louisville, Kentucky, was to increase capacity. Not only was this goal achieved but a number of other benefits were also realized.

Throughput was increased from 15 cases per labor hour to over 32. Cycle time was decreased from four days to 24 hours. Conveyor capacity jumped from 400 cases per hour to 1500 cases an hour.

How the System works:
The system transports cases of locks which are manually picked and placed on five infeed conveyor lines. One line is used for cut-case products. The other four lines are designated for all other products.

The first infeed line is equipped with a photo-eye which the pickers and packers can use to start and stop the line. The pickers/packers here may repack if needed, then send the order to the main transport line. The other four lines feed into two main transport lines where they are scanned and weighed. These two main transport lines move the product around to the sortation conveyor (Hytrol Model ProSort 131). This sortation conveyor has twenty-one, 30 degree, diverts. There are fourteen, 20 ft. long and seven, 40 ft. long decline gravity conveyors to move the completed order to shipping.

Above top is the re-pack area. Abovebottom is the Hytrol model Pro-Sort 131 high-speed sortation conveyor. If cases are rejected by the bar code scanner, a return lane is provided at the end of the Pro-Sort (see drawing enlargement at top right).

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