In recent years, there has been a growing demand for industrial goods in day to day life. In order to meet the increased demand for industrial goods, industries need to maintain a sustainable demand and supply ratio. Traditionally, industries used to employ humans for sorting and transferring of inventory items. However, the employment of humans in such sorting facilities generally tend to be costly as well as prone to mistakes and may also be time consuming. Many such sorting facilities have resorted to conveyor belt systems which were introduced as a carrying medium in order to reduce cost and time consumption in transferring of items from one location to another within the facility.
Generally, the conveyor belt system utilizes two or more rollers configured with a conveyor belt as the carrying medium for the transfer of items from one end to the other. The items are placed over the conveyor belts and are transferred from one location to another by the movement of the conveyor belts. However, the use of a conveyor belt system comes with its own disadvantages and challenges. For example, a conveyor belt system is a fixed system with a belt assembly installed at a certain location in the sorting facility. Therefore, any required change in pickup and drop points, or relocation of the whole conveyor belt system, if needed, is quite challenging, and sometimes even impossible. Moreover, the conveyor belt system being a fixed system, does not allow for any change in the throughput thereof. Furthermore, failure of any one component of the conveyor belt system results in non-functioning of the entire system. Additionally, the conveyor belt system does not allow distributive clearance between the items place thereon, which could result in hazardous accidents.
Therefore, in light of the foregoing discussion, there exists a need to overcome the aforementioned drawbacks associated with the traditional systems for carrying and handling of items while being transferred from one location to another.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds