A workstation can have multiple internal work rails and these can be addressed individually, to optimize the production flow.
Id ✎
The rail id. The first interal rail number is always the same as the station number.
For example station 1003 may have 3 rails,
Internal rail no. 1 (closest to operator): 1003
Internal rail no. 2: 1002
Internal rail no. 3 (furthest away from operator): 1001
Internal Rail Number ✎
The rails on a station are internally numbered with rail 1 being closest to the operator.
If an operator on a multi-rail station wants to select what rail to get carriers from the following terminal command can be used
[railNumber] F8
Rail Load Limit ✎
The rail load limit is the max bulk that can be contained on a rail. Attempts to address a carrier to a rail that has reached the limit will result in a Destination Full routing error. Mechanical routing can still send until the physical overload switch of the rail has been activated.
A normal empty carrier is bulk factor 1, but that can change depending on what article is loaded and what operations have been performed.
All carriers addressed to a rail or physically on a rail are counted as being part of the rail load.
Max Rail Load Limit ✎
This is the physical max load that can fit on a rail. The Rail Load Limit cannot exceed this value, and usually the actual limit is set below this value, especially on sorting buffers where 20-30% of the capacity need to be reduced for the sorting to properly work.
Rail Load Low Percentage Warning ✎
Used to set a limit for when the rail load should display a warning in the Notification center.
Rail Load High Percentage Warning ✎
Used to set a limit for when the rail load should display a warning in the Notification center.
Overload Switch Activated ✎
This is an indication that the physical overload switch on a rail has been activated.
This can either indicate
- The rail is full and the Rail Load Limit might have to be adjusted.
- The rail is full and the bulk factor of the products have to be adjusted.
- In case of a feeding buffer, the feeding may have stopped which has caused carriers to stay on the overload switch. In this case the buffer is not necessarily full.
Unload From Line ✎
The line that the workstation will unload from. Middle stations that do not recieve carriers directly from the line should not have this value set.
Unloading Node ✎
The node that handles the unloading for this rail. On simple workstations this is usually the same node that handles the loading.
For feeding buffer bridges, there is often a node on either side. The nodes on each side will handle the loading in one direction of the bridge and unloading in the other direction.
Short bridges may have the same node for unloading and loading.
For middle station chains, the unloading node should be the station that is previous in the chain.
Example middle station setup
1001: Node 1
1101: Node 2
1201: Node 3
Station 1201 is loading carriers to the line and also handles the unloading of carriers from the line.
Rail 1001 thus has node 3 as unloading node.
Rail 1101 recieves carriers from station 1001, which means the unloading node is 1.
Rail 1201 recieves carriers from station 1101, which means the unloading node is 2.
Unload Reader Delay ✎
The unloading reader delay is the distance, in cogs, between the RFID reader on the line and the unloading arm. This distance can be calculated with help of the Load Delay Assistant tool.
Blocked ✎
Blocking a rail means that carriers cannot be addressed to that rail by normal means. Carriers that are already in transit to a blocked rail will continue to that rail and be unloaded, but new routing attempts will not include the rail as a candidate receiver.
Carriers sent via mechanical addressing can still go to blocked rails.
Prioritized Rail ✎
A prioritized rail will receive carriers before other rails that are otherwise equal according to the addressing strategy.
Routing Rule ✎
Routing rules can be added to a rail to allow only specific carriers to enter. Please see RoutingRule
Station ✎
The ID of the station the rail belongs to.