Cartveyor® Shopping Cart Conveyor

Cartveyor® Shopping Cart Conveyor is easy to use and can run parallel with a passenger escalator or as a stand-alone unit. Referred to as trolley conveyors or buggy conveyors in different countries, these shopping cart conveyors are extremely advantageous in multi-level retail stores. Cartveyor incorporates many safety features, requires minimal maintenance and is designed for years of trouble-free performance. Cartveyor is made by PFlow Industries, Inc. - the leading supplier of the vertical reciprocating conveyor (VRC) for over 40 years.

• Heavy-duty industrial chain conveyor supported by Seismic Zone compliant steel truss structure.
• Quality stainless steel cladding provides seamless connections and a uniform, aesthetically appealing appearance.
• Accommodates higher shopping cart traffic than an elevator.
• Code compliant. Covered under ANSI/ASME B20.1 code. Patent pending.

Since the early eighties, large retailers have traditionally located their businesses in large, single-story buildings in the suburbs. This trend, known as “Big Box” retailing, typically requires 12 to 14 acres of land to provide enough space for the average 120,000 square foot store and sufficient parking.

Realizing an untapped market, many larger retailers are now moving back into urban areas where property is more dense and expensive. In order to utilize these urban locations, the retailers are forced to build multi-level stores.

Several problems are created when shopping is done on multiple levels; one being the requirement to move customers with their shopping carts (or trolleys or buggies) between the levels. This problem is not easily solved with traditional means of vertical transportation. Elevators are not efficient for moving the high volume required and inclined moving walkways have not been successful for several reasons.

Because moving walkways are required to be installed at a less then 12-degree inclination, they take up a huge amount of retail space. In addition, all the shopping carts must be outfitted with special casters that have internal brakes to keep them from rolling away on the incline. Furthermore, wheeled carriages (such as baby strollers) without the special casters are prone to creating damage and injury.

A major US retailer, already using a PFlow VRC for moving pallets, challenged PFlow to solve the problem of safely and efficiently moving shopping carts between levels. Having successfully designed and built hundreds of continuous vertical conveyors for the United States Post Office, it took PFlow less than a year to meet the challenge.

Cartveyor™ Shopping Cart Conveyors are now employed by a variety of retail stores throughout North America. Installed parallel and adjacent to an escalator, the Cartveyor allows store customers to simply push their shopping cart in, and ride the escalator next to their cart.

Safety Features

Touch Screen Display in archway graphically displays instructions to customers.

Stainless Steel Archway at infeed provides a visual and physical guide to inhibit carts with overhanging loads.

Bi-panel locking safety gates restrict unauthorized access to Cartveyor.

Durable low friction plastic shapes help customer align cart and guides cart into conveyor.

Photoelectric Sensors are positioned at both infeed and discharge levels to detect people or material other than shopping carts and turns unit off. (Not Shown)

Control Package

Provides “smart” operation that can be adjusted to provide custom operation for each store. PLC (programmable logic controller) based controls provide the ability to adjust time settings at each store for sleep-mode reaction time and jam-reset parameters. In addition, the program automatically archives shopping cart throughput, number of hours running, and fault occurrences providing store management with performance criteria.

Provides store personnel secured easy access to fault diagnostics. If a fault occurs, display alerts store personnel to problem, lists appropriate steps to remedy fault, and instructs reset of operation

Ensure carts are properly positioned.

The Cartveyor Shopping Cart Conveyor provides the most sensible way to move shopping carts, trolleys, or buggies from one floor level to another, especially in multi-level retail stores.

1. Store customer pushes a shopping cart through Cartveyor’s safety gates.
2. Floor guides at Cartveyor entrance guide the front and rear cart wheels into proper position. Cartveyor senses the presence of a shopping cart and pulls the cart to the next level.
3. Store customer rides escalator to the next level and retrieves shopping cart.

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