01How the linear frame works
Carriers travel the top of the frame in one direction, each carrying one parcel on its cross belt. As a carrier passes its parcel's destination chute, the belt drives sideways and places the parcel into the chute — the same gentle, positive discharge as the loop frame, on a straight geometry. At the end of the track the empty carriers turn and return underneath the frame to the induction end, ready for the next parcel.
Induction is typically at one end of the line, fed by a singulator and a DWS section, so each parcel arrives on its carrier already identified and measured. Destinations then read down the line in whatever order the operation wants — by carrier, by route, by service — and can be re-mapped in the control configuration as the network changes.
02Where linear beats loop
The frame decision is geometric. Linear fits buildings that are long and relatively narrow, and sort plans that naturally read as a sequence along a wall or a dock face. It also grows gracefully: track sections and chutes can be added along the line in a later phase without re-framing the sorter, which suits operations whose destination count is climbing year by year.
Loop frames concentrate more destinations into a compact, squarer footprint and allow induction at multiple points around the loop; where a hall offers length rather than area, linear is usually the more natural and more expandable answer. Both frames discharge identically, so parcel handling quality does not enter the decision — it is building and growth, all the way down. The parent cross-belt sorter page covers the technology both frames share.
03Specifying a linear line
The inputs are the hall's usable length, the destination count today and in three years, induction position, and the parcel profile the carriers must handle. Discharge can be to chutes, gaylords or directly to take-away conveyors on either or both sides of the track. As with the loop frame, the honest specification comes from the layout work — send the building plan and destination list via the contact page and the frame is drawn to fit, not picked from a size chart.