Ever since Henry Ford introduced the conveyor system to produce the Model T, these systems have gained popularity as the can reduce cost and increase safety in almost any manufacturing environment. Conveyor system manufacturing allows machinery to transport parts that might cause injury to workers. The allow machines to do work that people would find repetitive or hard work with little effort.

By the ’50s conveyor systems had moved their way to the food manufacturing business as evidenced when Lucy and Ethel went to work in the chocolate factory packaging chocolates.

A favorite example of a conveyor system that saves its owners money and improves the safety for workers is found in the donut chain. This system extrudes donuts from the dough and drops them into the fat to fry. The flow down the little fat river and are flipped at precisely the correct time. They continue to move on down that little river and are picked up by a metal conveyor belt when the cooking is done. This metal conveyor causes them to pass through a blanket of frosting and moves them on down the line to be packaged by the worker.

The system addresses three problems. Without the system, there would need to be a person at several stations along the line. The person shaping the donuts, the person dropping the donuts into the fat, a person to flip the donuts, another to lift them out of the fat, someone to frost the donuts and then the person to package them would all be required. Instead it only takes the one person to package those donuts.

Conveyor systems are used in many other ways in the food industry. They can be used in preparing and packaging foods or in moving foods through ovens in order to cook the food to perfection. Drink manufacturers use the machines for bottling the drinks. Snack food manufacturers use them to cook and package foods.

In heavier industries, such as the automotive industry, heavy parts can be safely moved from one work station to another. Without the conveyor system, moving these parts might involve several workers that could possibly be injured at each step of the way. Once parts are painted, they can be moved through high temperature ovens and cooling without the threat of the heat burning a human.

In multi-level manufacturing plants, conveyor systems can be used to move parts from one floor to another and save the time that would be associated with moving them from the first level to an elevator and then back to the new workstation. The part is moved upstairs in just a few minutes rather than half an hour.

Conveyor manufacturing systems are much safer than using forklifts or almost any other method of moving parts from one place to another.

If you are a manufacturing business looking to increase worker safety and increase production, you too should consider what Henry Ford did almost a hundred years ago. Install the conveyor system designed for your business and you can improve the safety of your workers and the production of your company.

For more information on Power Trolleys, Remanufactured Power Trolleys, or any other conveyor parts, please visit Blue Water Manufacturing.

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