Copyright © 2026 Fluent Conveyors, LLC. All rights reserved.
The Fluent Conveyors logo is a registered trademark of Fluent Conveyors, LLC. Serial Number 97664258 Registered on Dec. 12, 2023
Copyright © 2026 Fluent Conveyors, LLC. All rights reserved.
The Fluent Conveyors logo is a registered trademark of Fluent Conveyors, LLC. Serial Number 97664258 Registered on Dec. 12, 2023
Fluent designs and manufactures custom shuttle carts. A powered conveyor bed rides a traveling carriage along a fixed track, so one conveyor can feed or receive from several lines. Built for boxes and pallets on new systems and retrofits. Engineered and fabricated in the USA.
A shuttle cart is a conveyor bed mounted on a traveling carriage. Products enter at a fixed feed point. The carriage travels laterally along its track to the selected position, and the bed discharges the load onto the receiving line, station, or bin. One conveyor reaches every destination along the track.
Three elements make up the machine.
The carriage is a structural steel frame on guided wheels.
The track fixes the travel path and carries the load.
The bed is a working conveyor with its own drive.
Several names have been used by other manufacturers to describe this equipment. Transfer cart, conveyor transfer cart, transfer car, shuttle car, and traversing conveyor all refer to a conveyor bed that travels. Fluent builds shuttle carts into package handling systems and other lines handling boxes, pallets, or bulk material.
A shuttle cart replaces a set of fixed transfers with one moving transfer. A conventional layout requires a powered junction at every branch point, while a cart covers every branch point from a single travel path, which makes this a low-footprint and low-cost conveyor configuration.
One infeed conveyor discharges onto the cart at a fixed point. The cart carries each load to its assigned line and discharges. This is the standard arrangement for palletizer discharge, staging lane assignment, and any operation feeding parallel process equipment from a shared upstream line.
The same machine can run the other direction. A cart collects from several feed positions and discharges to one outbound line, which consolidates production output or sorted product onto a single trunk line. Feed and discharge positions can be mixed along one track, so a single cart both distributes and collects.
A bed long enough to hold several boxes accumulates a full batch before it travels. The cart then makes one trip per batch rather than one trip per unit. Batch length is the largest variable in shuttle cart transport rate, and it is set during design against product size and required loads per hour.
The following options can be added to meet specific application and site requirements:
Fluent builds the control panel that houses the carriage drive VFD, the bed drive, position reading, and the permissives that block a discharge into an occupied line. Our panels are built to UL 508A specifications, comply with TÜV standards, and are individually certified. Fluent Conveyors does not hold UL 508A certification as a company.
Integration scope varies by project. A cart delivered inside a Fluent system runs on Fluent controls end to end, while a cart retrofitted into an existing line needs an I/O handshake with the host PLC or warehouse control system that determines position assignment. Fluent handles control system programming either way, including transfer permissives and fault recovery at each station.
Shuttle carts help optimize the industries Fluent serves, wherever one line has to reach several destinations.
Batches of cases and totes route to parallel pack, label, or ship lanes from one trunk line. See conveyors for the packaging industry and belts for packaging applications.
Finished pallets distribute across staging lanes assigned by SKU, dock door, or outbound load. See distribution center conveyors and belts for distribution centers.
One conveyor feeds several process lines, presses, or assembly cells, with position assignment driven by product recipe. See manufacturing conveyors and belts for manufacturing.
The bulk configuration feeds shredders, screens, and balers as readily as it fills storage. Pairs with live bottom bins and conveyor chutes in material recovery plants.
Fluent retrofits shuttle carts into conveyor lines of any make, working from your drawings or field measurements. Carriage, track, and bed are fabricated to the receiving equipment's elevations and spacing, and the assembly ships with its panel ready for connection. Where drawings are missing, our team can produce them, and existing customers can request a CAD file of equipment Fluent has already built.
Prepare the following specifications to help us quote you accurately:
Partial specifications are fine. We can work with you to determine the rest, and larger projects can run under a formal engineering services agreement.
Fluent builds custom conveyors from the ground up, and the engineers who spec drives, beds, and controls also design our shuttle carts. Every assembly ships from our 85,000 sq ft US manufacturing facility.
Fabricated in the USA by certified welders, with installed systems running worldwide
Bed and track specified against your product mix, not a nominal load size
Control panel and programming handled in-house
Available as part of a new Fluent system or as a standalone retrofit
Backed by service and support and our warranty coverage
Ready to work with the experts?
Stop conveyor operations immediately in emergencies.
Adjust speed and increase torque for conveyor drives.
Belt protrusions that prevent material rollback.
Connect belt sections with mechanical or vulcanized joins.
Remove debris and carryback from belts.
Weigh material as it moves along the belt.
Conveyor belts for all applications and materials.
Transfer energy from motors to conveyor belts.
Toothed wheels that engage chains to drive the belt.
Transfer power and support rotating components.
Maintain proper belt tension and alignment.
Absorb impact from falling material on belt conveyors.
Replacement chains for roller chain conveyors.
Support and guide the conveyor belt.
Power your conveyor systems with reliable motors.
Flange, pillow-block, take-up, and slewing configurations.
Measure and monitor material weight on moving conveyor belts.
Heavy-duty rails for mobile equipment integration.
Automatically lubricate chains and moving parts.
