Tutorial 1 - Conveyors

This tutorial will give you a good introduction to some of the key features of the conveyor objects in FlexSim. You'll learn how to build conveyor systems that can sort, merge, build slugs, and how to create a power and free system. You'll also learn how to integrate your conveyor system with the Process Flow tool.

Tasks Covered

This tutorial will cover the following tasks:

Task 1.1

Sorting Systems

In this task, you'll build a simulation model that uses three different methods to sort flow items: 1) conditional sorting, 2) destination-based sorting, and 3) sorting to downstream fixed resources.

Task 1.2

Merging, Area Restriction, and Slug Building

In this tutorial task, you'll add a merging lane and then later change the diverting lanes to build slugs of items that will be released once certain conditions are met. You'll also learn the different ways to use area restriction and merge controllers to control when flow items merge. In the last two steps, you'll learn how to reduce gapping in merging lanes.

Task 1.3

Adding and Removing Gaps

In this task, you'll learn a few tips and tricks for adding and removing gaps in your conveyor system. It will explain how to angle conveyors and how to use decision points with a merge controller to reduce gapping. It will also demonstrate how to use area restriction to add gaps and how to use the Process Flow tool to improve throughput.

Task 1.4

Power and Free Systems

In this task, you'll learn how to make your conveyor system look and function more like a power and free system. Power and free conveyor systems typically use a series of overhead trolleys that are propelled by dogs that continually move through the conveyor system.

For More Information

These tasks will cover the topics included in the chapter entitled Connecting 3D Object Flows.