Straight and Curved Conveyors
Overview and Key Concepts
The straight and curved conveyors can simulate conveyor belts or roller conveyors.
Events
For information on events, see the Event Listening page.
The straight and curved conveyors have the following events:
On Entry
On Entry occurs whenever an item enters the conveyor.
It has the following parameters:
| Event Parameter | Type | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| Entering Item | treenode | The item that entered the conveyor |
On Exit
On Exit occurs whenever an item exits the conveyor.
It has the following parameters:
| Event Parameter | Type | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| Exiting Item | treenode | The item that is exiting the conveyor |
On Item Bump
This event occurs when an item or a slug is blocked by another item or slug, forming a single slug.
It has the following parameters:
| Event Parameter | Type | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| Front Slug | Array | The set of items in the downstream slug |
| Back Slug | Array | The set of items in the upstream slug |
States
For statistical purposes, the conveyor will be in one of the following states at various points during a simulation run. The current state can be viewed by clicking on the object and then viewing the Statistics panel in Properties.
Empty
There are no items on the conveyor.
Conveying
There is at least one item on the conveyor.
Stopped
There is at least one item on the conveyor, but the conveyor's speed has is set to zero. The conveyor will go into this state immediately when its speed is set to zero (i.e. at the time it STARTS to decelerate to zero).
Blocked
Only used for non-accumulating conveyors. When an item on a non-accumulating conveyor is stopped or blocked, the conveyor will become blocked. Note again that accumulating conveyors do not use this state. If you want to get better blocked state statistics on accumulating conveyors, you should use photo eyes.
Statistics
The conveyor tracks of the following statistics. These can be viewed by clicking on the object and then viewing the Statistics panel in Properties.
Content
The number of items in the conveyor.
Input
The total number of items that have entered the conveyor.
Output
The total number of items that have exited the conveyor.
Staytime
The durations that items are in the conveyor.
Percent Full
The percent that the conveyor is "filled" with items. This uses the following formula:
100 * (TotalStopSpace / ConveyorLength) where TotalStopSpace
is the sum of the stop spaces of all the items currently on the conveyor. Note that this
percentage may go above 100%, specifically when there are items straddling multiple
conveyors.
Properties Panels
The straight and curved conveyors use the following properties panels:
Properties
Both straight and curved conveyors support the following properties:
Straight conveyors use the following properties:
| Property | Type |
|---|---|
| HorizontalLength | Unit |
Curved conveyors use the following properties:
| Property | Type |
|---|---|
| Radius | Unit |
| StartAngle | Number |
| SweepAngle | Number |