WORLD OF INDUSTRIES 06/2018 (RU)

Combined transport and
handling system
Production-related process sequences and spatial
constraints were the main focus of the requirements
set out by the Arnold Group regarding the design of a
conveying system for glass tubes. The tubes coming
directly from production at a temperature of approx.
100°C were to be accepted by the conveying
technology, transported, and transferred to the
corresponding further processing stations. Although
this design sounds pretty straightforward, the
engineers at AMI Förder- und Lagertechnik had to
develop a technically sophisticated indexing conveyor
system that was specifically tailored to the operator’s
requirements.
The requirement
The requirement for a customer from the glass tube production sector
was to implement a fully-automated conveying system that was
able to execute the handling and transport functions for the tubes
– with a diameter of 25 mm and lengths ranging between 90 and
150 mm – coming directly from production at a temperature of approx.
100°C and ultimately combining all of this into an efficient
material flow. Within a eight-second cycle, four correctly sorted, i.e.
90 mm long, glass tubes should be transported, picked up by a suction
gripper, transferred to a workpiece carrier system with 24 units,
and supplied to the machine plant for further processing by the
conveying technology.
As the Arnold Group had already collaborated with AMI Förderund
Lagertechnik on other projects and because it appreciated the
company’s ability to meet individual requirements, as well as its
specialist knowledge and reliability, the request for a quote and ultimately
the contract to develop, construct, produce, and finally
implement the indexing conveyor system was awarded to the company
from Luckenbach, Germany.
LOGISTICS
T
he Arnold Group supplies a broad range of burners, tools, and
standard machines for demanding specialist glass companies
in the thermal and mechanical glass processing sector. However,
the company’s portfolio also includes complex process solutions,
for example, for solar thermal glass tube production processes, the
highly accurate resizing of fused quartz glass tubes, the highly automated
production of laboratory and light glass, and other special
applications for thermal glass processing. The customer directory
includes companies from the photovoltaics, glass and fused
quartz glass processing, fiber optics, and automotive manufacturing
sectors.
The framework conditions
Certain framework conditions had to be observed in addition to the
technical requirements and the request to integrate the conveyor
system within the downstream processes following actual production.
“Due to the existing on-site infrastructure comprising machines,
systems, safety equipment, and a control cabinet, as well as
the limited floor space required us to be quite creative when it came
to the structural design and implementation,” explains Rolf Quint,
design engineer at AMI. Ultimately, the indexing conveyor system
had to meet process-related requirements and also had to be integrated
within the systems used for subsequent processing. According
to Quint, the workpiece carrier (incl. protruding components)
20 WORLD OF INDUSTRIES 2018