Recently, I managed a brownfield project that included a significant amount of demolition. In the decommission phase of the project, older equipment was inventoried and assessed for repurposing. While evaluating the conveyors, I was amazed at the variety of designs, belting, fabrication and, unfortunately, poor sanitary design.
Additionally, in a previous role as a director of process automation and technology for a major processor, my team and I had an interesting discussion about the possibility of creating a generic conveyor design. This design would use common parts, construction, drives and belting. It would be a “clean” design and save on fabrication and reduce spare-parts inventories.