- Overview
Configure two Ryson Spirals to preserve valuable floor space while sending product overhead for overhead dynamic storage or buffering.
Ryson Vertical Accumulation Buffers use Spiral Conveyor technology to add dynamic product storage in unused vertical space. They are designed for manufacturers and packaging operations that need to buffer surges, reduce short line interruptions, or provide dwell time for cooling, drying, or curing without adding long horizontal conveyor runs. Ryson buffers can handle many conveyable products, including bottles, cans, pails, bags, bundles, totes, containers, and wrapped or unwrapped items. Available slat widths include 6, 9, 12, 16, and 20 inches, with a listed total weight capacity of 1,600 lbs at any one time.
How does a Ryson Vertical Accumulation Buffer work?
A Ryson Vertical Accumulation Buffer uses one reversible spiral or two or more spirals to move products up and down through a controlled vertical path. This creates dynamic storage above the production floor, allowing products to accumulate temporarily and return to the line when downstream equipment is ready.
The system is commonly used where products need additional process time for cooling, drying, or curing, or where the line needs surge capacity between manufacturing and packaging processes. Depending on product type, line speed, and layout, products may merge directly back into the production line or use additional merging devices.
Where are Vertical Accumulation Buffer Conveyors used?
Vertical accumulation buffers are used when floor space is limited but a line needs more buffer capacity. They are especially useful in food and beverage, consumer packaged goods, industrial manufacturing, warehouse and distribution, and packaging environments where short interruptions can reduce productivity.
- Food and beverage: buffer bottles, cans, containers, trays, or wrapped products during filling, cooling, drying, curing, inspection, packaging, or downstream interruptions.
- Consumer packaged goods: balance flow between labeling, cartoning, case packing, palletizing, and other packaging operations.
Industrial and manufacturing: accumulate pails, bags, bundles, totes, and containers between production cells or packaging equipment.- Warehousing and distribution: provide temporary vertical storage for cartons, parcels, and totes where floor space is constrained.
- Agricultural processing: support packaged product flow where reliable handling, uptime, and available plant space are important.
The Ryson Spiral Conveyor can be used in conjunction with a robotic pick and place module for dynamic buffering. Check out out application spotlight (case study) to read about the set-up in detail.
Ryson Spirals can also be used in conjunction with accumulation tables to prove additional vertical capacity. Check out this story.
- Gallery
- Features & Benefits
Ryson Spiral Conveyors have many unique features that make them ideal Vertical Conveying Solutions. Many of our features are designed to save money in the long term, essentially lowering your total cost of ownership.
Design Flexibility: Our unique design offers flexibility of configuration. It also adds the ability to field modify to accommodate changing future needs at a fraction of the cost of a new conveyor.
Overlapping slats provide a smooth and efficient conveying surface, ensuring gentle product handling and suitable for all types of conveyable items. Our efficient rolling friction chain-slat design only needs a single drive, resulting in substantial savings in energy, controls and systems integration.
Our innovative chain-slat design enables a low friction operation without any sliding movements or wear-strips. This allows the Spiral to stop and start fully loaded.
Our efficient rolling friction chain-slat design only needs a single drive, resulting in substantial savings in energy, controls and systems integration.
Most Spirals ship in one piece and leave our factory pre-assembled and pre-tested. Installation is generally an efficient process and reduces time for implantation and integration.
Our Spirals and components are designed for reliability, low maintenance and long life. They have an impressive up-time record reducing the total cost of ownership.
Click below to read details about more of our features:
All Ryson Spiral Conveyors are made to order and comes in a wide range of sizes and configurations.
This innovative belt enables a low rolling friction operation without any sliding movements or wear strips on the spiral conveyor. The belt is pulled by a heavy duty steel roller chain and the slats are supported by precision steel roller bearings which ride on a polyurethane surface. This arrangement effectively takes up the side forces created by a tight radius and at the same time increases the load carrying capacity of the belt up to 75 lbs per linear foot. This enables the spiral conveyors to start and stop fully loaded and facilitates high speed, low noise and long life.
Ryson Spirals are designed for low maintenance and long life. Only high quality components are used throughout. All bearings are sealed for life and need no further lubrication. The chain is of heavy duty nickel plated construction and needs only infrequent lubrication. The slats are made of a nylon composite, need no maintenance and can easily be replaced as single components without the use of special tools. Ryson has a full staff of factory trained service technicians ready to assist. All of our service techs are PMMI Certified Trainers. All of these factors contribute to Ryson’s low total cost of ownership.
All Ryson Spiral Conveyors are equipped with an automatic chain tensioning device and built-in overload protection as a standard. This helps save both the Spiral and the product it is conveying.
Our proprietary chain slat belt assures a low noise operation, less than 75 db in most cases.
Ryson Spirals are powder coated carbon steel with choice of any standard RAL color. They are also available in hybrid versions suitable for wet environments or stainless steel versions for washdown applications.
- Specs & Configurations
Most Common Models
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Diameter
Width
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Standard Case / Unit Load Spirals
- Videos
Why choose Ryson Spiral technology?
Ryson Vertical Accumulation Buffers are built on Ryson Spiral Conveyor technology designed for compact vertical conveying, low maintenance, reliable operation, and long service life. The design uses overlapping slats and a low-friction chain-slat system to provide smooth product handling while reducing mechanical complexity.
- Single-drive design can reduce energy use, controls complexity, and integration cost.
- Low rolling friction operation eliminates sliding movements and wear strips in the spiral.
- The spiral can stop and start fully loaded.
- The belt has a load-carrying capacity of up to 75 lbs per linear foot where applicable to the Spiral design.
- Sealed-for-life bearings, replaceable nylon composite slats, and infrequent chain lubrication support low maintenance.
- Automatic chain tensioning and built-in overload protection help protect the conveyor and products.
- Low-noise operation is less than 75 dB in most cases.
- Powder coated, stainless steel, and wet environment versions are available.
- Most spirals ship pre-assembled and pre-tested to reduce installation and integration time.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a vertical accumulation buffer conveyor?
A Vertical Accumulation Buffer conveyor stores products in vertical space instead of long horizontal lanes. Ryson’s system uses Spiral Conveyor technology to provide dynamic storage for cooling, drying, curing, surge handling, or short production and packaging line interruptions.
How does a Ryson Vertical Accumulation Buffer work?
The buffer uses one reversible spiral or two or more spirals for up-and-down product movement. Products travel into the spiral path, accumulate in controlled vertical storage, and then return to the production or packaging line when downstream equipment is ready.
What products can the Vertical Accumulation Buffer handle?
Ryson states that most conveyable products can be handled, including bottles, cans, pails, bags, bundles, totes, containers, and wrapped or unwrapped items. Final suitability depends on product size, stability, weight, friction, orientation, and line speed.
What industries use vertical accumulation buffers?
Common applications include food and beverage, consumer packaged goods, industrial and manufacturing, and packaging operations. The strongest fit is any line that needs more accumulation capacity but has limited floor space.
When should a manufacturer choose vertical accumulation instead of horizontal accumulation?
Choose vertical accumulation when floor space is constrained, overhead space is available, and the line needs more buffer time than a short table or horizontal conveyor can provide. It is especially useful for surge handling, cooling, drying, curing, and temporary storage.
Can the buffer reduce downtime?
Yes. A Vertical Accumulation Buffer can absorb short interruptions between manufacturing or packaging processes, allowing upstream equipment to keep running while downstream equipment recovers. This can reduce stop-start disruption and improve overall line productivity.
Where should vertical accumulation be placed in a line?
It should be placed between processes that frequently become unbalanced, such as filler-to-labeler, packaging-to-case packing, production-to-palletizing, or sortation-to-shipping.