A reject conveyor FAT checks the agreed build, controls, product handling and induced fault responses before dispatch. SAT confirms installation and integration at the customer’s site. The protocol should cover good and failed products, speed and format extremes, consecutive rejects, missed confirmation, missing or full bins, low air, open access and controlled restart.
Test the complete reject outcome
What should a reject conveyor FAT prove?
The factory acceptance test should trace each agreed requirement to an observable result. This commonly includes construction checks, safety functions, controls sequences, product recipes, inspection interfaces, correct rejection and the defined response when a critical condition is deliberately removed.
Product trials should use representative samples agreed in advance. The smallest, largest, lightest, heaviest and least stable formats often reveal different handling risks. Testing only one convenient product at one moderate speed does not demonstrate the full duty.
Functional and fail-safe challenge tests
A useful test matrix can include accepted products, known failed products, minimum pitch, maximum agreed speed and consecutive rejects. Induced faults may include no reject confirmation, actuator not home, low air pressure, missing bin, full bin, access open, blocked destination or unavailable downstream lane.
For each fault, the protocol defines the expected alarm, line response, product disposition and reset condition. The purpose is not simply to create alarms; it is to show that a critical failure cannot pass unnoticed or allow uncontrolled restart.
What changes at SAT?
Site acceptance verifies the installed conveyor with the real upstream and downstream equipment, utilities, guarding interfaces and production handshakes. Product movement may differ from factory trials because of actual transfers, accumulation, speed references or inspection delays.
Any changes are recorded and the affected tests repeated. Operator training, cleaning access and recovery from common faults can be included in the agreed site scope.
Supporting qualification and audit records
Where a regulated process requires additional qualification evidence, the documentation scope should be agreed at quotation stage. FAT and SAT records can support the customer’s validation activities, but they do not replace the site’s user requirements, risk assessment, operating procedures or independent approval responsibilities.
Key project considerations
- Requirements traceability
- Representative product trials
- Maximum and minimum duty tests
- Induced sensor and actuator faults
- FAT and SAT protocols
- Validation-support documentation