Design and Validation of a Belt Conveyor Driven by a Linear Motor

• Applicants: Professor Dr.-Ing. Ludger Overmeyer; Professor Dr.-Ing. Bernd Ponick
• Subject Area: Production Automation and Assembly Technology ; Automation, Mechatronics, Control Systems, Intelligent Technical Systems, Robotics
• Term: from 2017 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 327504026

Material handling systems in warehousing applications are used to transport units, which can differ from light bulk material to single piece goods. The drive principle of belt conveyors typically consists of a motor connected to the drive pulley. To move the conveyor belt the entire feed force has to be transmitted by frictional connection over the driven pulley. The allowed tension force of the conveyor belt is a design criterion for the belt conveyor length. To reach large conveying distances, either conveyor belts with high nominal strength or the distribution to multiple conveyors with shorter axis distances is necessary.By using a linear direct drive instead of the driven pulley, the feed force is transmitted over the motor length directly into the conveyor belt. As consequence of the larger force transmission path, this leads to a lower necessary conveyor belt preload as well as the opportunity to use belts with a lower nominal strength due to the reduced peak load compared to the conventional drive principle.During a previous research project funded by the DFG two concepts of belt conveyors driven by a linear motor have been built up as prototypes. Thus, the general suitability for such drive concepts was shown. In cooperation with partners from industry the scientific findings are to be developed further and evaluated based on scenarios with practical relevance.Goal of the research project is to develop new scientific findings for belt conveyors driven by a linear motor in combination with the design and validation of a prototype which can be compared with conventional belt conveyors. By comparison the potential of the linear direct drive principle is to be derived among the cooperation partners. From the view of the cooperation partners the development of the current scientific findings is a high risk for them, because important scientific issues such as e. g. the area of friction caused by normal forces and the guidance system are not solved yet.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants (Transfer Project)
• Application Partner: Forbo Siegling GmbH; TRANSNORM SYSTEM GmbH; WITTENSTEIN cyber motor GmbH