Abstract
The “free-pallet” index conveyor system has been developed by the authors. This paper deals with one-axis toothed belt conveyor used as positioning mechanism in the system. A prototype of one-axis conveyor system has been developed to investigate positioning capability. To construct a flexible system which can easily change stroke, duration, velocity, and acceleration for different purposes, the conveyor is driven by a DC servo motor and controlled by a personal computer. Motion control using cam curves is applied to realize high accuracy and high speed conveying. Positioning accuracy, velocity characteristics, and residual vibration of the conveyor are also tested by experiments, and the results show that the developed conveyor system is effective as the positioning mechanism in the free-pallet index conveyor system.
