Real parts.
Real applications.

The site operates a large conveyor system with hundreds of lane full sensor positions. The original OEM sensors cost hundreds of pounds each — a significant ongoing expenditure for replacements, spares, and new installations across the facility.

The challenge was that the existing conveyor rail geometry didn't accommodate standard commodity sensors directly. FormStrata visited site to take precise measurements and understand the sensor interface requirements, then designed a bracket from scratch in CAD that holds a far cheaper commodity sensor in exactly the same position and orientation as the expensive OEM unit — with no modification to the conveyor structure required.

The curved profile follows the rail geometry precisely, with integrated sensor pockets holding the replacement sensors in alignment and a top-mount fixing plate that drops straight onto the existing extrusion rail. Printed in ASA for UV and heat stability in the warehouse environment.

With hundreds of positions across the site, the cost saving per sensor position is multiplied significantly — delivering a return on investment from the very first installation. The design is retained and can be reprinted in any batch quantity as the rollout continues.

When a power cable exits an auto reel at the wrong angle, it wears against edges, pulls unevenly through the reel mechanism, and eventually fails — often at the point of repeated flex. On extending booms, getting the cable to enter the cable tray at a consistent downward angle is critical to reliable operation.

This bracket attaches directly to the auto reel and guides the power cable downward into the cable tray of the extending boom in a controlled, consistent path. Simple in concept but precise in execution — the bracket geometry had to be designed specifically around the reel body and the cable tray entry to achieve the correct exit angle without introducing stress into the cable.

Printed in PETG for toughness and long-term dimensional stability. The images show the bracket fitted to the reel prior to installation — the Beta tool chest in the background is simply the work surface it was photographed on before fitting overhead.

The sensor in question had been replaced dozens of times over an extended period — each replacement taking the conveyor offline and adding to a growing maintenance bill. The root cause was clear: passing pallets were clipping the exposed sensor body during transit, but the sensor position was critical to system operation and couldn't simply be moved. This wasn't an isolated issue at a single location — the same problem was occurring at multiple points across the site, wherever pallet traffic passed close to conveyor-mounted sensors.

The solution was a curved protective shroud that wraps around the sensor, presenting a smooth deflection surface to passing traffic while holding the sensor securely in alignment. The scoop geometry means any contact simply deflects off rather than striking the sensor directly.

Designed to bolt directly to the existing conveyor frame fixings, the guard required no modification to the structure and was installed in minutes. Printed in ABS for impact resistance and dimensional stability, the guards have been fitted across multiple locations throughout the facility. Zero sensor replacements since installation.

The site operates over 100 automated storage and retrieval shuttles, each travelling aisles in excess of 60 metres in length. Dust, cardboard fibre, and debris accumulates in the wheel troughs over time, affecting shuttle travel accuracy and triggering faults that required the aisle to be taken offline for manual cleaning.

With so many shuttles across so many aisles, the cumulative maintenance burden was significant — cleaning teams were regularly pulled from other tasks to service troughs, and the associated downtime was beginning to show up in the customer's output metrics.

The solution was a two-part adjustable bracket: a mounting body that fixes to the shuttle frame, and an adjustable foot that positions a cleaning brush at precisely the right height to sweep the trough floor as the shuttle travels. Every traverse of the aisle — in both directions — sweeps debris clear of the wheel path automatically, without any manual intervention.

Fitted to all shuttles across the installation, the results were immediate. Maintenance time for trough cleaning has decreased by 30%, and the reduction in unplanned downtime has had a direct positive impact on the customer's output metrics. The bracket continues to perform across hundreds of thousands of shuttle cycles.

Barcode readers mounted alongside roller conveyors are inherently vulnerable to passing totes — even minor contact is enough to shift the reader out of alignment. Once misaligned, read rates drop, mis-reads accumulate, and the conveyor begins generating exceptions that require manual intervention to clear.

This bracket was designed to house and protect the barcode reader whilst keeping it precisely positioned relative to the conveyor. The geometry wraps around the reader body, presenting a smooth deflection profile to passing totes so any contact simply glances off rather than transferring load into the reader mount.

The result is a reader that stays in alignment regardless of tote contact — eliminating mis-reads caused by collision damage and reducing the manual intervention needed to keep the conveyor running at throughput.

When a Dematic multishuttle encoder bracket was damaged in service, the expected resolution was to replace the entire encoder assembly — a costly and unnecessarily wasteful outcome given the encoder itself was completely undamaged. The bracket, however, was not available to purchase separately through the OEM supply chain.

FormStrata reverse engineered the bracket from the undamaged encoder and surrounding structure, producing a dimensionally accurate replacement that accepts the existing encoder body, aligns the bolt circle correctly, and interfaces with the shuttle frame exactly as the original.

The encoder was refitted to the new bracket and returned to service — at a fraction of the cost of a full assembly replacement. The design is retained for future use if further brackets are required on the same or similar equipment.

Accumulation conveyor sensors are frequently exposed to contact from passing product and totes, leaving them vulnerable to being knocked out of alignment. Each time a sensor is displaced, the conveyor either fails to generate a signal entirely or misses detections — both outcomes requiring manual intervention and impacting throughput.

This bracket was designed to address both problems simultaneously. The sensor is fully enclosed and protected within the bracket body, shielded from direct contact. The mounting foot incorporates an adjustment slot that allows the sensor to be precisely positioned during installation and repositioned if needed.

Fitted across multiple sensor positions on the accumulation conveyor, the bracket has significantly reduced the frequency of conveyor stoppages attributed to sensor misalignment, and eliminated the recurring need for manual sensor realignment during shifts.