Troubleshooting · Repair · Recovery

Conveyor Repair
& System Recovery

Sunshine State Automation troubleshoots and recovers conveyor and sortation systems throughout Florida and nationwide. Belt, lineshaft, chain-driven live roller, gravity, accumulation, spiral and MDR: we diagnose the controls, drives, sensors, networks and logic on any conveyor platform, including systems we did not install and systems that run but will not hold their required throughput.

Tell us what the system is, what it is doing and what it should be doing. A photo of the HMI alarm and the panel nameplate is usually enough for us to start.
Existing Equipment Is Welcome

It Does Not Have to Be MDR, and It Does Not Have to Be Ours

Most of the systems we are called into were built by someone else, and most of them are not MDR. That is fine. A large share of conveyor stoppages trace to controls, drives, sensors, networks or logic, and that layer looks much the same whether the product is moving on belt, lineshaft, chain-driven live roller, accumulation or motorized rollers. We diagnose and repair it on any of them, take over incomplete or underperforming projects, and leave the system documented and supportable.

Where the line is: our hands-on mechanical scope is MDR, meaning rollers, frames, zone hardware and the components around them. On conventional belt, lineshaft, CDLR, spiral and accumulation equipment we diagnose the controls, drives, sensors, networks and logic; if the remaining repair needs belt splicing or heavy mechanical rebuild, we tell you exactly what failed and what trade it takes, rather than billing you for a visit to reach the same answer.

MDR conveyorBelt conveyorLineshaft Chain-driven live rollerAccumulationSpiral GravityMotorized rollersDriver cards Photo eyes & sensorsEtherNet/IP networksVFDs & motors ControlLogix & CompactLogixHMI applicationsZPA accumulation Dynamic gappingMerges & divertsHigh-speed sortation Barcode scannersWCS / WMS interfacesControl panels CommissioningRetrofits & expansionsSpare zones
Start Here

Conveyor Problems We Troubleshoot

What you are seeing on the floor, and what it usually turns out to be. None of these are guesses made from a desk: they are the calls that actually come in.

One MDR zone is dead, the rest of the line runsAlmost always a roller, a driver card, the card's power feed, or the sensor that tells the card a product is there. The card's own LEDs and the zone's upstream behavior narrow it down in minutes once you know what the pattern means.
Product accumulates but will not release cleanlyZPA release logic, sensor timing, or a zone that thinks it is still occupied. On MDR this is a logic and sensor problem far more often than a mechanical one.
Cartons arrive at the scanner too close togetherGapping. Either the merge is releasing without enough separation, the release timing was never tuned against the real product mix, or upstream speed changed and nobody re-tuned downstream.
The sorter mis-sorts or misses divert windowsTracking. Product position is being lost between the scan point and the divert, usually through an encoder, a photo-eye, a speed mismatch or a handshake with the host that drops messages under load.
Random network dropouts, zones fault togetherEtherNet/IP segment, a bad drop, a switch running out of headroom, or device-level power. Groups of zones faulting together points at the segment, not the zones.
The HMI shows an alarm nobody can interpretThe alarm was written for the programmer, not the operator. We rewrite alarms so they name the device, the zone and the next action, which is the same problem HMai exists to solve.
The line runs, but never hits the rate it was sold atThe most common call we get, and the least likely to be one broken part. It is normally a chain of small losses: gapping, release timing, merge priority, accumulation depth and recovery behavior after every minor jam.
The install was never finished and the integrator is goneControls completion. We document what is physically there, finish the logic, commission it against your real rates and product, and leave you with drawings and a trained maintenance team.
How a Call Runs

From Your First Email to a Line That Holds Rate

No dispatch queue, no tier-one script, no ticket that ages for three days before an engineer reads it.

  1. You describe the symptomWhat the system is, what it is doing, what it should be doing. Photos of the HMI alarm and the panel nameplate tell us the platform. You are talking to the engineer who will do the work, not to an intake desk.
  2. We diagnose remotely firstA large share of controls problems are identified before anyone travels. If remote access exists we use it; if it does not, we work from your alarm text, drawings and photos and tell you what to check and what to measure. We are prototyping a field assist tool that lets a technician photograph the fault on a phone and get the zone context and likely cause back on the spot.
  3. We come on site with the right partsMDR rollers, driver cards, power supplies and pre-configured replacement zones come to us factory direct as NDW's US service partner, so a zone swap is a part on a truck rather than a distributor lead time.
  4. We fix the cause, not the symptomClearing a jam is not the job. Finding why that zone jams every ninety minutes, and changing the logic, the sensor placement or the release timing so it stops, is the job.
  5. We tune it until it holds rateThroughput is proven against your real product mix, not a spec sheet. If the system was sold at a rate it has never hit, we will tell you honestly whether the logic, the layout or the expectation is what has to change.
  6. We document it and train your teamDrawings, alarm meanings, recovery procedures and the spare parts that actually matter. The goal is that the next occurrence does not need us.
Project Recovery

When the Install Stalled and Nobody Is Coming Back

Partially completed and unreliable systems are common, and they are expensive in a way that does not show up on any invoice. We specialize in bringing them into production fast, built so your maintenance team can actually support them.

  • Controls completion and commissioning for abandoned or behind-schedule installs
  • Fault recovery, alarm review and root-cause diagnostics under production pressure
  • Performance stabilization and throughput tuning to hit the rate targets the system was bought for
  • As-built documentation and maintenance training so the system stays supportable after we leave
  • Retrofits, expansions and modifications to systems already in production
09:41:02 ALARM Zone 14 jam detected: photo-eye PE-14B blocked
09:41:02 DIAG  Upstream zones 11-13 set to accumulate
09:41:18 GUIDE Operator prompt: clear carton at Zone 14, confirm PE-14B
09:41:54 OK    Fault cleared. Auto-restart sequence initiated
09:42:01 RUN   Sorter at rate: 80 cpm · all divert lanes active
09:42:01 Downtime this event: 59 seconds

What we do not do. Belt splicing, vulcanizing and belt fabrication are a different trade, and there are shops in Florida that do that work well. Ours is MDR conveyor, transport and sortation systems and the controls that run them. If your problem turns out to be a belt, we will tell you that on the first call instead of selling you a site visit.

Straight Answers

Conveyor Repair Questions We Get Asked

Do you repair conveyor systems you did not install?

Yes. Most of the systems we are called into were installed by someone else. We troubleshoot, repair and recover conveyor and sortation systems regardless of who built them, including systems whose original integrator is no longer available, no longer in business, or no longer willing to come back.

What kinds of conveyor faults do you troubleshoot?

PLC and HMI faults, MDR zone failures, motorized roller and driver card failures, photo-eye and sensor faults, EtherNet/IP and network dropouts, VFD and motor faults, accumulation and release problems, gapping and singulation problems, sorter and divert timing failures, barcode scanner handshakes, WCS and WMS communication faults, chronic jams, and systems that run but will not hold their required throughput.

Can you take over a conveyor project that was never finished?

Yes. Controls completion and commissioning for abandoned or behind-schedule installs is one of the things we do most. We pick up whatever exists, document what is actually there, finish the controls, commission the system against real rates, and hand it over with documentation and training so your maintenance team can support it.

Do you work on MDR conveyor specifically?

Yes. MDR is our core system. We supply motorized rollers, driver cards, power supplies and pre-configured replacement zones factory direct as NDW's US service partner, and we write the ZPA, gapping and diagnostic logic ourselves. A dead zone on an MDR line is usually a roller, a driver card, a sensor or a network segment, and we carry the diagnostics to tell which.

Do you work on conveyor that is not MDR?

Yes. The controls, drives, sensors, networks and logic are where most conveyor faults actually live, and those are largely the same problem whether the product is moving on belt, lineshaft, chain-driven live roller, gravity, accumulation, spiral or MDR. We diagnose and repair that layer on any platform. Our hands-on mechanical scope is MDR: rollers, frames and zone hardware. On conventional equipment we will tell you precisely what failed and, where the repair itself needs belt splicing or heavy mechanical rebuild, what trade it takes.

What areas do you cover?

We are based in North Florida and cover the state directly, with service throughout Gainesville, Ocala, Jacksonville, Lake City, Orlando and Central Florida, and Tampa Bay. We also support customers nationwide, and a large share of controls troubleshooting is done remotely before anyone gets on a plane.

What do you need from us before you can help?

For a first pass: what the system is, what it is doing, what it is supposed to be doing, and any fault or alarm text on the HMI. Photos of the panel nameplate and the HMI screen are usually enough to tell us what platform we are dealing with. If you have the PLC program, drawings or the original integrator's documentation, send those too, but we routinely start without them.

Do you do conveyor belt splicing or vulcanizing?

No. Belt splicing, vulcanizing and belt fabrication are a separate trade, and there are shops in Florida that do it well. We diagnose controls, drives, sensors and logic on any conveyor platform, and we do mechanical work on MDR. If your problem turns out to be the belt itself, we will tell you that on the first call and point you at someone who does that work, rather than selling you a site visit to reach the same conclusion.

Get In Touch

Is Something Down, Slow, or Never Finished?

Send us what you have. We will tell you what we think it is, whether it needs us on site, and what it will take to make it hold rate.