Material Handling

Conveyor Capacity Planner

Calculate real conveyor throughput using unit length plus minimum gap as the true spacing, not the gap alone, which badly overstates capacity.

Conveyor speedft/min, belt travel speedThroughput targetunits/hour required

Unit spacing

Unit lengthft, unit's length in the direction of travelMinimum gapft, minimum required gap between units

Real conveyor capacity1,500/hr

Effective spacing4 ft

Surplus300/hr

Continue Analysis

Based on your results, these related decisions are available.

Manual vs Conveyor Decision decide manual versus conveyor once conveyor capacity is known

Resources

Guide Material Handling: Forklift or Conveyor The right handling method depends on flow pattern, capacity, labor, and the cost of inflexibility.

How this works

Effective spacing between units on the belt is unit length plus the minimum required gap, the true center-to-center pitch. Capacity is belt speed converted to feet/hour divided by that pitch, not the gap alone.

Key terms

Effective spacing: unit length plus minimum gap, the true center-to-center distance between units on the belt.

Assumptions

Uniform unit size, constant belt speed, no merge/divert delay

Limitations

Single conveyor segment, not a full material-handling system model

Sources

Standard conveyor-system throughput-capacity practice.

Worked example

Using only a 1ft minimum gap as "spacing" gives a wildly overstated 6,000 units/hour. The correct effective spacing (3ft unit length plus 1ft gap) gives 1,500 units/hour, a 4x lower and realistic figure.

Common use cases

Checking whether a conveyor can meet a throughput target before installing it
Comparing conveyor capacity against a forklift fleet alternative
Avoiding an overstated capacity estimate that misses a real conveyor