{"id":15262,"date":"2019-02-05T08:00:43","date_gmt":"2019-02-05T14:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cisco-eagle.com\/blog\/?p=15262"},"modified":"2025-12-17T15:04:37","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T21:04:37","slug":"conveyor-merges-and-sortation-low-volume-alternatives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cisco-eagle.com\/blog\/2019\/02\/05\/conveyor-merges-and-sortation-low-volume-alternatives\/","title":{"rendered":"Conveyor Merges and Sortation: Low Volume Alternatives"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"width: 100%; max-width: 500px; height: auto;\" src=\"https:\/\/images.cisco-eagle.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/RightAngleSorter.jpg\" alt=\"Right angle pusher for a conveyor line\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Sorting, pushing and diverting products as they are transported on a conveyor system is one of the best ways to reduce costs, improve fill rates, eliminate errors and increase throughput &#8212; and there are multiple ways to go about it. Some systems are downright plodding&#8211;pushing only a few loads per minute&#8211;while others are dizzyingly fast, pushing out hundreds of diverts per minute. This post will profile some of the lower to medium speed options at your disposal.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<aside class=\"tldr-summary\" style=\"padding: 10px 20px 15px 25px; margin-bottom: 50px; border-radius: 15px; border: 2px solid #e4dddd; margin: 4px 10px 4px 10px; box-shadow: 0 4px 8px 0 rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2), 0 6px 20px 0 rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.19);\" data-type=\"summary\">\n<h4>TL;DR \u2013 Sorter options for low to moderate volume conveyors<\/h4>\n<p>Choosing a conveyor sortation method depends on load characteristics, throughput speed, and the number of destinations. For lower volumes, pushers (up to 45 cycles per minute) and deflector arms are cost-effective but can be harsh on fragile items. Moderate-speed needs are best served by pop-up sorters or timing belt transfers, which gently lift and redirect products for zone picking and parallel line transfers.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p><script type=\"application\/ld+json\">\n{\n  \"@context\": \"https:\/\/schema.org\",\n  \"@type\": \"BlogPosting\",\n  \"headline\": \"Conveyor Merges and Sortation: Low Volume Alternatives\",\n  \"name\": \"Conveyor Merges and Sortation: Low Volume Alternatives\",\n  \"description\": \"Choosing a conveyor sortation method depends on load characteristics, throughput speed, and the number of destinations. For lower volumes, pushers and deflector arms are cost-effective but can be harsh on fragile items. Moderate-speed needs are best served by pop-up sorters or timing belt transfers, which gently lift and redirect products.\",\n  \"url\": \"https:\/\/www.cisco-eagle.com\/blog\/2019\/02\/05\/conveyor-merges-and-sortation-low-volume-alternatives\",\n  \"datePublished\": \"2019-02-05\",\n  \"author\": {\n    \"@type\": \"Person\",\n    \"name\": \"Scott Stone\"\n  }\n}\n<\/script><\/p>\n<h3>What are you conveying? How fast do you need to convey it? How often and where are you diverting it?<\/h3>\n<p>Techniques, technology and implementations always follow need and application. Define your loads first, breaking them down by type (tote, carton, poly bags\/envelops, loose items), shape, weight, balance and dimensions. Some products may not be suitable for some sortation methods. By defining your loads, you eliminate any unsuitable sortation method.<\/p>\n<p>Sortation technology ranges from steady to very fast. What you&#8217;ll need depends on the speed of your conveyor line, the throughput of the system, the variety of destinations and the number of sorts required from the system.<\/p>\n<h3>Low-speed methods<\/h3>\n<h4><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.cisco-eagle.com\/video\/frame.aspx?id=158\" width=\"320\" height=\"240\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/h4>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float: right; width: 100%; max-width: 313px; height: auto; margin-left: 10px; margin-top: 10px;\" src=\"https:\/\/images.cisco-eagle.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/diverter-arm.jpg\" alt=\"light directed picking\" \/><\/p>\n<h4>Pushers<\/h4>\n<p>For many, product sortation needs low-volume sorters such as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cisco-eagle.com\/category\/3212\/conveyor-pushers-pushoffs\">pushers<\/a>, which are mounted on the side or overhead of a conveyor line. They push products off a line\u00a090\u00b0 during a sortation cycle onto another conveyor line, spur or into a chute. A right-angle pusher can achieve 45 cycles per minute. Overhead pushers also divert products 90 degrees. Both types can reposition products onto a parallel line. The Extenda pusher type can run fifty cartons per minute and offers space-saving functionality due to its design.<\/p>\n<h4>Deflector arms<\/h4>\n<p>Deflector arms, which use a swing arm or powered arm to divert conveyed loads, are another lower speed option. As a carton or tote enters the zone an arm swings to divert the product and send it to another angle in a sortation or accumulation application. Convergers, which are sometimes called <em>mergers<\/em>, move products from one conveyor to another.<\/p>\n<p>Pushers are faster than deflector arms but may cause product damage due to their speed. It&#8217;s best to understand the fragility of your load before choosing an option of this kind.<\/p>\n<h4>Ball transfers<\/h4>\n<p>Ball transfers are a gravity\/manual transfer method that can be built into an effective conveyor system.<\/p>\n<h4>Moderate speed solutions<\/h4>\n<p>When more speed is required than the slower options, there are a number of solutions. Pop-up sorters are an excellent method for sorting products. They are simple, effective and relatively fast transfer equipment that utilize wheels or rollers to &#8220;pop&#8221; up beneath a conveyed item, lift it, and move it toward its destination.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Pop-up timing belt transfers<\/strong> are used for transfer to parallel conveyor lines. These are cost-efficient and effective transfers for zone picking applications. They were utilized for exactly this purpose by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cisco-eagle.com\/vector\/2317\/educational-development-corporation\">Educational Development Corporation<\/a>.\u00a0 They gently lift and roll conveyed lines perpendicular to the conveyor and onto another line.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sorting, pushing and diverting products as they are transported on a conveyor system is one of the best ways to reduce costs, improve fill rates, eliminate errors and increase throughput &#8212; and there are multiple ways to go about it. Some systems are downright plodding&#8211;pushing only a few loads per minute&#8211;while others are dizzyingly fast, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"series":[],"class_list":["post-15262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conveyor"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2027-04-03 22:24:54","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cisco-eagle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cisco-eagle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cisco-eagle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cisco-eagle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cisco-eagle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15262"}],"version-history":[{"count":34,"href":"https:\/\/www.cisco-eagle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15262\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33401,"href":"https:\/\/www.cisco-eagle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15262\/revisions\/33401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cisco-eagle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cisco-eagle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cisco-eagle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15262"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cisco-eagle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=15262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}