Roller vs. Chain Pallet Conveyors: What to Check Before Specifying a System

Compare roller and chain pallet conveyors by how the pallet underside is supported in the required travel direction. Total load mass is necessary, but it cannot establish whether a runner spans the supports, catches at a transfer or reaches a station in the right orientation.

This is a specification guide for horizontal pallet handling. It contains no LINEVO pallet-conveyor model claim and gives no load rating for an unspecified machine.

Illustrative photograph. This is a selection sequence, not a machine design or load-rating chart.

Start with an underside drawing

Provide the pallet’s bottom deck or runner arrangement, dimensions, material and permitted condition. Identify openings, protruding fasteners, repaired areas and any allowed variation across pallet suppliers. State whether the same line carries empty pallets and loaded pallets.

A support drawing should show the pallet at entry, normal travel, transfer and final positioning. If the project changes travel direction, repeat the support review in the new orientation. A pallet accepted along one route is not automatically accepted across a right-angle transfer.

Compare the contact arrangement

Question	Roller arrangement	Chain-strand arrangement
Where is support applied?	Across the selected roller positions beneath the pallet	Along the selected chain tracks beneath the pallet
What geometry matters?	Roller spacing, transfer gaps and underside members crossing them	Track spacing, underside contact paths and transfer alignment
How is load distributed?	Verify which rollers actually carry the loaded pallet	Verify how the pallet transfers load to the supporting strands
How does direction change?	Require the proposed lift, transfer or turning arrangement	Require the proposed transfer arrangement and new support orientation
What proves compatibility?	Actual pallet samples through the complete conveyor path	The same samples and conditions, including transitions

The Interroll pallet platform catalog illustrates roller and chain modules as different arrangements within pallet systems. That does not establish a universal rule that one carries every pallet better. Its model ratings are not used here.

Give empty pallets their own trial

An empty pallet can arrive skewed or behave differently from a loaded one. Include the pallet dispenser or manual loading point, if used, and define orientation detection, failed-transfer handling and acceptable pallet condition. Ask how the system identifies a pallet outside the agreed envelope before it reaches a critical transfer.

For loaded pallets, provide the load footprint, center-of-mass information where relevant, overhang and load stability before wrapping. The stretch-wrapper integration guide addresses the unwrapped-load handoff after palletizing.

Define the station and access boundaries

Specify the final position needed by the palletizer, wrapper, lift or mobile robot. Agree how the receiving station detects arrival and grants transfer permission. Where a forklift interacts with the conveyor, the project layout and risk assessment must address vehicle access and personnel exposure; the conveyor comparison does not settle those engineering decisions.

Discuss abnormal conditions: a pallet stops across a boundary, a station loses communication, or downstream space fills. Name the supplier responsible for each recovery sequence and obtain the corresponding instructions. Do not accept a handoff described only as “standard interface.”

Assemble a comparable enquiry

Send underside drawings and physical pallet samples, loaded and empty masses, load dimensions, direction changes, station positions, required accepted flow and proposed rejection criteria. Ask each supplier to return a support drawing, included-module list, controls boundary and trial plan against the same inputs.

Carry those interfaces into the line integration record and the RFQ checklist. The material-handling guides cover cartons and mobile transport separately.