Separator separating 3 parts in 3 different ques

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Yogi asked Mar 2, '25 Logan Gold commented Mar 7, '25

Separator separating 3 parts in 3 different ques

Separator logic need help.fsm

I need help with refining my model. I want to separate three items—Pallet, Box, and Gray Plates—so that:

The Pallet goes to Queue20
The Box goes to Queue9
The Gray Plates go to Queue21

After separation, the Pallet and Box should be combined before moving forward.

Could you please help me with this?

Software Version:

FlexSim 22.2.0

separator combimer 3part

separator-logic-requesting-help.png (1.2 MiB)

separator-logic-need-help.fsm (19.1 MiB)

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Logan Gold ♦♦ commented · Mar 07 at 05:51 PM

Hi @Yogi, was Felix Möhlmann's answer helpful? If so, please click the "Accept" button at the bottom of their answer. Or if you still have questions, add a comment and we'll continue the conversation.

If we haven't heard back from you within 3 business days we'll auto-accept an answer, but you can always comment back to reopen your question.

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Answer 1 · 2025-03-03T07:47:09Z

Felix Möhlmann answered Mar 3, '25 Felix Möhlmann commented Mar 4, '25

The settings for the separator are already correct. The issue is with the order of items on the pallet. Initially the plates enter first and then the box. When a backlog builds and reaches the combiner that loads the pallets, this order switches because both items are available at the same time and so the port rankings define the order.

To fix this, change swap the ranks of the second and third input into combiner2. And, to be sure, both sources should use the same interarrival time (if that is allowed).

1740987992710.png (267.0 KiB)

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Attachments: Up to 12 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 23.8 MiB each and 47.7 MiB total.

Yogi commented · Mar 04 at 01:01 AM

Hi Felix,

Thanks again for your help—I really appreciate it!

I followed the same approach, but after 12:16 PM, the issue reoccurs. The Box moves to the overhead conveyor, and after some time, it changes again.

Could you help me understand why this is happening and how to fix it?Separator Issue.png Separator Issue.fsm

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separator-issue.png (1.1 MiB)

separator-issue.fsm (19.1 MiB)

Felix Möhlmann Yogi commented · Mar 04 at 07:14 AM

The buffer queue for the plates can only hold a single item whereas the boxes have the entire conveyor as buffer. When the combiner is blocked due to a backlog, the boxes keep getting generated by the source but the plates don't. This eventually leads to the situation where a box is available and thus enters the pallet but the combiner has to wait for the plates.

You could enforce the plates entering first by closing the output of the box queue until an item has exited the plate buffer queue.

separator-issue_1.fsm

(You could of course also do this the other way around if it makes more sense. Since the parts are named "body" and "door". That would then require to swap the port order of the separator)

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separator-issue-1.fsm (19.1 MiB)

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