Tested Safety
IEF-Werner develops individual solutions for customers - for example a palletising system consisting of a loading and unloading system. Particular here is that the trays are compared with an MES system via RFID tags and the products in them via barcodes. This ensures that the right parts are always fed into and removed from the process for different products. The machine buffers intermediate trays, defective products and empty trays in order to make them available for the interlinked process - an economical solution that a user is already using successfully.
Furtwangen, 21.01.2020 – Fast and reliable automated loading and unloading of products from load carriers for the assembly of components plays a major role in many companies in the automotive, pharmaceutical, electronics or medical technology industries. This enables companies to work economically - especially in the mass production of large quantities. Users achieve high efficiency in their processes with powerful palletizing solutions. They also ensure the supply of the components, since no manual errors can occur. IEF-Werner GmbH offers palletising systems and attaches great importance to short cycle times and high reliability. The engineers explicitly respond to individual requirements with their systems. "We have developed an extremely economical solution for a customer that consists of a loading and unloading system," reports Stefan Deck, general manager at IEF-Werner. In this specific application, panel-shaped products measuring 310 x 410 millimetres and with thicknesses of 0.1 to 1.5 millimetres were to be removed from trays and fed to a conveyor system for further processing. The plates are made of aluminium or copper alloys and have different structures. This also means that they have different weights. "So we have different products that have to be handled and identified reliably by the system depending on the order," explains Deck.
Safety comes first
Up to ten plates of the same shape, material and weight are each located in a plastic tray. To prevent the products from sticking together, there are intermediate layers of non-stick coated plastic in between. "The task was now to separate the products, remove them from the trays and the process in the correct position, check that they were correct, and feed them for further processing," describes Deck.
The operator takes a trolley on which several loaded plastic trays are stacked and pushes it into the loading system. When loaded, the trolleys weigh up to 150 kilograms. Each tray is equipped with an RFID tag to ensure that the right products are fed into production. Each load carrier should also contain only single-variety products - "but you can't be completely sure about that," says Deck. Therefore, a barcode is printed on the top and/or bottom of each plate, which is scanned after removal from the tray.
With its adapted pallet gripper, the lifting axis removes the top tray from the trolley and drives it to a transponder that reads the RFID tag. If the data is correct, the handling unit removes the top product from the tray. A scanner reads the barcode and sensors also measure the thickness. The plant compares the data with the order in the Manufacturing Execution System (MES) of the operator. The handling unit then places the plate on the conveyor belt. If necessary, this is rotated. But what if the information on the bar code does not match the data in the system? "A signal as well as a warning message is then sent to the operating personnel with a corresponding request for manual intervention and inspection. To prevent the intermediate layers from sticking to the product, an air impulse is emitted from a blow-off pipe during removal from the tray. The gripper then transports these intermediate trays to the storage provided for this purpose, the empty trays to its buffer storage.
"The advantages of this concept are particularly evident in interlinked plants and process steps," says Deck. "It is precisely here that the right components must be made available quickly and precisely so that they can then be fed into and removed from further processing steps in the specified position. IEF-Werner makes an efficient production automation possible with this solution, which is increasingly becoming a decisive competitive factor.