And this for complex and large conveyor systems to handle Boxes and Cartons in any size throughout the Logistics- and Distribution-centers for all kind of industries.
This patented element is called OTU (Omnidirectional Transfer Unit), produced and delivered by Avancon, Switzerland. In this Article you will see some applications realized with this simple “brick”.

“A single piece of LEGO really is just a tiny, useless brick. Start putting them together, however, and it’s a different story. Anything is possible with LEGO. You don’t ‘use’ a LEGO brick, you build, create or play with it. It demands interactivity. LEGO’s are endlessly remix-able, immersive and definitively open ended.” bondstreet.com/blog/learn-from-lego

Ok, the brick we are talking about here is not for children nor for consumers but for Manufacturers and Integrators of Conveyor Systems. It’s not yet known worldwide and it is made for more specific applications in Logistics and Distribution Systems; but it is so versatile and so universal usable in these systems that sooner or later nobody will ever miss it, when building and planning Materials Handling Systems.

We present to you the Avancon-OTU (Omni-directional Transfer Unit). A versatile and multifunctional brick for transporting nearly all kind of goods into any desired direction. It can be used in most industries and fits into almost all conveyor constructions by the use of special aluminum profiles underneath. It comes completely assembled to OTU-tables, which are equipped with a power supply, BLDC-Motors and the necessary Controls and programed for your application.

You may easily understand the variety of applications when seeing the following examples:

There is the Corner-Solution and also a Transfer-Solution installed in a “Picking Line”, at a big Pharmaceutical Producer and Distributor in Korea, where on two lines a circle for the two typical picking lines were installed.

Here is a nice application solving in a new developed Airport Security Line for hand baggage with modern CT scanning. It will be installed in many Airports worldwide by the CT-X-ray producer. The decision was made for the Avancon-System because it is closed completely and more secure.

This is an application, which any warehouse can use. It is fast enough to meet the sequences of the stacker-cranes in the high bay storage to distribute 10’000 packages per hour to 8 destinations. This can be extended, when necessary at any time. It is installed at one of the largest distributors for Car and Motorcycle parts in India by Bastian Solutions.

This sorter shows the advantage of the OTU-diverter, which transports the goods directly in a curved way to the right and/or left. In this case directly to the straight chutes.

Another amazing application is this X-double crossing, which is able to transfer whether strait-in-line or crosswise from one line to a parallel line. It is really easy and very flat constructed. Amazingly hardly sticks something out under the conveyor frame height, which will allow to install two lines one above the other.

As a transfer from one lane to the other, OTU transfer tables are ideal, as here where an inclining- and declining-conveyor can discharge Boxes on any floor of the building.

This application is a clever solution. Instead of installing a long line of rollers diagonally, which is complicated to realize and expensive, these OTU-bricks solve the problem. In this case the direction is fixed. The application is used before barcode readers, when boxes or cartons have different dimensions.

The OTU tables can be used in many more cases, as for picking in front of a high bay storage or for moving goods into the straight direction or to move goods around corners or to move goods just out of a powered line for inspection or an operation and so on, and so on.

The OTUs are designed to carry a load 10 kg each and to move with a speed up to 1.5 m/s into any direction (360°) The size of an OTU table is theoretical unlimited.

For more information and videos see http://www.avancon.com/otu.html or http://www.avancon.com/conveyor-system-videos.html