Hospital Case Study

A local hospital in St Louis was experiencing dish ware handling problems at the drop off window as well as the dish room.  When personnel were not watching the tray drop off window area, trays would begin to pile up causing the conveyor to shut down by activating the tray limit switch.  This resulted in excessive work and dish breakage.

Gates redesigned the conveyor system by changing the 12' drop off area to a 6' drop off area and adding a Gates Tray Accumulation Device (TAD).  Now as a customer drops off a tray, the conveyor will advance the distance of one tray and stop until the next tray is placed on the belt.

Personnel can now be away from the conveyor until the belt is full and the breakdown operation can start.  At full service times, the conveyor can be set to run continuously by bypassing the TAD option.

This design allowed personnel to be away from the dish room area during non-peak times and stopped the confusion at the drop off area for customers.