Simulation of the Peristaltic Conveying of Parcels as Bulk

Abstract

In this paper a novel conveying principle for the resilient loading and transport of large amounts of parcels is presented. The conveying principle is based on an innovative planar support structure which consists out of an adaptive and elastic net of small-scaled conveying modules. The developed conveying principle with peri-staltic properties is designed to clear jammed and dammed parcels and for an active control of the transport of subsets of parcels to realize a certain throughput in the material handling system. This idea allows a link between the continuous conveying princi-ples for general goods and bulk materials to handle parcels as a bulk material. The basic function of the presented idea is proofed by the use of numerical methods such as the Discrete Element Method (DEM) and the Multi Body Simulations (MBS).