Moving Product Through Your Facility — Faster, Smarter, Without the Bottlenecks
A distribution center lives and dies by throughput. Every pallet that sits waiting, every case that takes an extra turn, every manual handoff that could have been automated — it all adds up to missed shipments, unhappy customers, and margin erosion. Custom Conveyor & Equipment Corporation has been solving these problems for over 40 years, designing conveyor systems that keep product flowing from receiving dock to shipping lane without the delays that plague operations relying on generic equipment.
The Reality of Distribution Conveyor Challenges
Distribution and warehouse operations face a unique set of pressures that most conveyor manufacturers don’t fully appreciate until their equipment is already installed and underperforming.
Volume swings are extreme. A facility might process 5,000 cases on a Tuesday and 25,000 on a Friday before a holiday weekend. Your conveyor system can’t be sized only for average volume — it needs to handle peak demand without creating the backups that turn a busy day into a crisis. But oversizing everything wastes capital and floor space you can’t spare. The engineering challenge is designing a system that scales gracefully across your full volume range.
Product mix keeps changing. Five years ago you might have shipped mostly uniform cases on pallets. Today you’re handling polybags, irregular parcels, oversized items, and individual eaches — sometimes all on the same system. A conveyor designed around a single product profile becomes an obstacle when your business evolves. We design systems with the adaptability to handle what you’re shipping today and what you’ll be shipping in three years.
Labor is your biggest constraint. Finding and retaining warehouse workers gets harder every year. The conveyors in your facility should reduce the number of manual touches required, eliminate unnecessary walking, and make the physical work less demanding. Every manual step we can automate or eliminate is a step that doesn’t need to be staffed, trained, or managed.
How We Approach Distribution Conveyor Design
We don’t sell conveyor by the foot. We study how product moves through your building and design systems that eliminate the specific bottlenecks holding your operation back.
Receiving and Inbound Processing
Inbound flow sets the pace for everything downstream. Our receiving conveyor systems move product from dock doors to put-away locations with minimal manual handling. Extendable conveyors reach into trailers for container unloading. Powered roller conveyors transport pallets from dock to staging areas. Sorting conveyors route inbound cases to the correct storage zone without operators making routing decisions on the fly. We integrate scales, scanners, and dimensioners directly into the conveyor line so product data is captured in motion — no stopping, no manual data entry, no delays.
Storage and Replenishment Feeds
Getting product from bulk storage to pick locations efficiently requires conveyor systems that bridge the gap between your storage infrastructure and your order fulfillment process. We design pallet conveyor runs that connect reserve storage to forward pick modules, case conveyor systems that feed goods-to-person workstations, and gravity flow lanes that keep pick faces replenished without forklift traffic in picking aisles. The goal is simple: product should be available where pickers need it, when they need it, without congestion or waiting.
Order Fulfillment and Pick Conveyors
The picking operation is typically the most labor-intensive function in a distribution center. Our conveyor systems support every major picking methodology — zone picking with conveyor takeaway, batch pick and sort, wave picking with accumulation, and pick-to-light integration. Belt conveyors run along pick faces to carry completed orders downstream. Takeaway conveyors beneath shelving capture picked items without requiring operators to carry totes to a central location. Merge conveyors combine picks from multiple zones into complete orders.
Sortation
When orders need to be separated by destination, carrier, or priority, sortation conveyors do the work that would otherwise require manual reading and routing. We design sliding shoe sorters for high-speed parcel distribution, pop-up wheel diverters for case-level sorting, and simple pneumatic pushers for lower-volume applications. The right sortation technology depends on your throughput requirements, product characteristics, and number of sort destinations — not on what’s trendy in the industry this year.
Packing, Shipping, and Outbound
The final stretch from packing station to truck determines whether you hit your carrier pickup windows. Our shipping conveyors move packed orders through weigh-and-manifest stations, past print-and-apply labelers, and into shipping lanes organized by carrier or destination. Accumulation conveyors in shipping lanes buffer orders until the truck is ready, preventing the pile-ups that happen when outbound volume exceeds dock capacity. Telescoping conveyors extend into trailers for loading, reducing the physical effort required to build loads in the truck.
Pallet Handling for Distribution
Distribution centers move enormous numbers of pallets — from receiving docks to bulk storage, from storage to pick modules, from pick areas to shipping. Manual forklift handling of every pallet movement creates traffic congestion, safety risks, and labor costs that compound as volume grows.
Our pallet conveyor systems automate the repetitive pallet movements that don’t require operator judgment. Heavy-duty chain conveyors transport full pallets between zones. Turntables reorient pallets for storage or loading. Pop-up transfers change pallet direction at intersections without manual intervention. Vertical lifts move pallets between mezzanine levels. We handle pallet loads from lightweight empty pallets up to 6 tons — significantly heavier than what most distribution operations encounter, but the engineering margin means your system runs well within its capability every day.
Conveyor Controls and Integration
A conveyor is only as useful as its connection to your warehouse management system. Product needs to be tracked, routed, and controlled based on real-time decisions from your WMS. We design conveyor control systems that interface with your WMS through standard protocols, receiving routing instructions and reporting conveyor status back to your management software.
Barcode scanners, RFID readers, and vision systems mounted on the conveyor line capture product identity and dimensions automatically. PLC-based controls manage motor speeds, accumulation logic, and sort decisions. HMI panels give your operators visibility into system status, jam locations, and performance metrics. When something stops moving, your team knows exactly where and why — not just that something somewhere has a problem.
Retrofitting and Expanding Existing Systems
Most distribution centers don’t get built from scratch with perfect conveyor systems. More often, you’re working with a facility that has grown organically, with conveyor sections added over the years by different vendors with different standards. The result is a patchwork of systems that sort of work together but create bottlenecks at every transition point.
We specialize in integrating new conveyor sections with existing equipment. We match belt speeds, roller spacing, and control protocols so new sections work seamlessly with what’s already installed. We can modernize controls on older conveyor runs to bring them into your current WMS integration. And we design expansions that account for the constraints of your existing building — working around columns, dock doors, fire suppression systems, and mezzanines that limit where conveyor can go.
Why Distribution Operations Choose Custom Conveyor
Distribution centers operate on tight margins where equipment uptime directly impacts profitability. Here’s why facilities choose us:
We understand warehouse operations, not just conveyor mechanics. Our engineers have designed systems for receiving, picking, sorting, packing, and shipping operations across dozens of facilities. We know what works in practice — not just in theory.
Every system is built in our Cedar Rapids, Iowa facility. We fabricate using our 3kW fiber laser, 300-ton press brake, and certified welding capabilities. Systems are assembled and tested before shipping, so installation in your facility is faster and problems are caught before they reach your floor.
We design for your actual operation. We don’t start with a standard product line and try to make it fit. We start with how your facility operates — your product mix, your volume patterns, your labor constraints, your building limitations — and engineer a system that addresses those realities specifically.
We’re available after installation. When a motor fails at 2 AM during peak season, you need technical support from people who know your system. We provide documentation, spare parts lists, and direct access to the engineers who designed your installation.
Start the Conversation About Your Distribution Conveyor Needs
Whether you’re building a new distribution center, expanding an existing facility, or trying to get more throughput from your current conveyor layout, we want to understand what you’re dealing with. Call us at (319) 449-3322 or visit our contact page to schedule a walkthrough with our engineering team. We’ll listen first, then propose solutions that actually fit your operation.
