conveyor system with hinges and closing systems

Project 08

Non-driven container station

Delivery period: April 2016

The client:
Our customer is a medium-sized family business with headquarters in Germany. As a supplier to the automotive industry it develops and produces locking, handle and hinge systems which are installed in flaps, doors and seats of almost all internationally known car brands.

The task:
The customer commissioned us to manufacture and install three non-driven conveyor systems with buffer zones, so-called container stations. Within the production process, these should be able to transport and buffer manually filled Euro pallets, lattice boxes as well as difficult to transport containers with a small contact surface (e.g. plate foot 110 x 110 mm) at the same time.

Features

Conveying Elements: Strand conveyor
Converter and change of direction
Storage techniques
Convey Goods: Pallets
mesh pallets and special containers
Industry: Metal / Automotive

The challenge

It applied:

to take into account that loading and unloading should be carried out by forklift truck.
to construct the system in such a way that it can transport both euro pallets and boxes of different dimensions.
to install safety components that ensure the best possible protection of the employees who manually fill the conveyed goods.
to design the plant in such a way that it optimises the flow of material between the individual production steps in such a way that the time-consuming intermediate transports with hand pallet trucks are drastically reduced.
to create buffer zones so that pallets, boxes and containers do not stand around on the floor of the warehouse, block paths and take up valuable storage space.

conveyor system for euro pallets and boxes

The solution

The conveying process in detail

In front of the respective infeed and outfeed stations of the infeed and return lines, separately standing rams, firmly mounted in the warehouse floor, ensure that the conveyor system is protected from approaching forklift trucks.

Centring devices are integrated in the rams (see illustration). They help to place the conveyed goods straight for further transport.

The high number of rollers on the three sections of the conveyor system ensures that the filled goods, which can be loaded with up to 500 kg, can be moved manually very smoothly.

When the material to be conveyed has arrived at the filling station or the discharge section, an employee manually operates a lever so that a stop in the form of a flat bar is folded over. This prevents a subsequent material to be conveyed from colliding with the material being filled. This prevents employees from getting their hands crushed.

conveyor belt with filling station or discharge section

By means of four compressed air-operated air actuators, the ejector is raised by foot switch (incl. valve with latching function) in such a way that the material to be conveyed is lifted from the feed section and only rests on the rollers for longitudinal displacement. After filling, it can be transferred from the infeed to the discharge point or discharged.

The pneumatic components as well as the operator-side area of the discharge are covered with sheet metal for the safety of the employees. The discharge section is equipped with additional guide rails to ensure that the conveyed goods do not tilt when moving in longitudinal direction and can be safely transferred and discharged.

When the material to be conveyed has reached the end of the discharge section or before the return section, the air is released from the air actuators again by pressing the foot switch. The material to be conveyed can now be moved unhindered onto the return section and then towards the take-off station.

There, the filled material to be conveyed is picked up by a forklift truck and transported to its designated storage location. The three conveyor systems were delivered in one construction phase, assembled, accepted and commissioned in two days.

Non-driven container station

Delivery period: April 2016

Features

The challenge

The solution

ALFOTEC GmbH

Locations

NEWSLETTER