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Feature Pallets, palletising & pallet handling Pallet conveyor system bridges gap


When Smith & Nephew, one of the UK’s largest medical device companies, needed to urgently install a powered pallet conveyor system at its Hull factory it called in Leicester based materials handling specialist, CI Logistics


good manufacturing practice) we took the decision to remove the secondary packaging operation out of our ultra- clean manufacturing operation into our distribution centre.


mith & Nephew’s sterile products are packed into caged pallets with a plastic base and these needed to be transported from a mezzanine in the company’s factory on one side of a busy road to its pack- ing and warehouse operation on the other side of the road. Once emptied, the cages then needed to be returned to the factory for the whole operation to begin again.


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The company already had an exist- ing conveyor system which trans- ported the cages across the road via a link bridge. The conveyor had been installed over 20 years ago and then mothballed for almost a decade due to changes in the company’s manufactur- ing techniques. As part of the materi- als handling contract, this legacy system would need to be resurrected and incorporated into a new, fully automated solution.


Built to a high standard Andrew Marris is the asset care man- ager for Smith & Nephew, he comments: “We opened up a new production facil- ity in Hull and as part of cGMP (current


The palletising system from CI Logistics has enabled Smith & Nephew to streamline its operation and reduce transport costs


“Moving our secondary packing operation into our warehouse and close to the point of despatch, meant we were transporting 120 pallet cages a day back and forth from manufactur- ing to warehouse across a public high- way. As a result we decideded to resurrect the concept of our old con- veyor which ran through a link bridge. “We supplied CI Logistics with a comprehensive user requirement spec- ification which outlined exactly what we were looking for, including our pro- duction rates. They came up with tech- nical solutions to all of our problems within the tight timescales required. From concept to order placement was a process of eight weeks with a three month build and install period. None of this was an issue to CI Logistics; they designed an extremely practical solu- tion which could be delivered in the right timescale and at the right cost. “We went to the CI facility in Leicester to complete the factory accep- tance testing as it’s far easier to rectify a problem at the manufacturer’s premises than post installation. On inspection however, we didn’t find any issues - everything had been built to a high stan- dard and met all of our specifications. “The majority of the conveyor solu- tion is new, but the final scheme does include re-using the old conveyor


Simple, precise and cost effective palletising E


nergy efficiency is the key feature of the new IEF Werner ecoSTACK pallet system from R A Rodriguez. This new addition is primarily designed for light pallets and can be integrated into assembly lines and combined with existing product handling systems such as robots. ecoSTACK is said to efficiently transfer raw parts, semi-fin- ished products or sub-assembled components to an assembly station or machine and then unloads them, once processing is complete. It is a flexible solution that can be applied to almost every palletising task that requires precise and effective automation. Pallets are taken individually from the bottom of the loading stack, placed on the


transport belt and successively presented to the processing station. On completion of the process they are individually transferred to the bottom of the unload stack and carried upwards to be integrated into the processed pallet stack. Operator safety is assured by integral safety covers and no additional guarding is required within the pallet stack area. For greater flexibility ecoSTACK can be fitted with the IEF Werner rotaryARM that has a range of 399mm; an optional


NC rotary axis for the gripper can also be specified. The combination of ecoSTACK and rotaryARM can provide a very fast pick and place system for any application that requires an effective and precise automation solution. R A Rodriguez


T: 01462 670044 S18 www.rarodriguez.co.uk Enter 363


sections that were already there and also the main lift shaft in the ware- house. These have been re-engineered and refurbished, new motors and gear- boxes installed and everything has been mechanically overhauled. CI was very happy to incorporate its own con- veyor systems into what was already there and that was another reason the company was awarded the contract.”


A complex control philosophy The control system for the old scheme was only part existing and obsolete. It was necessary therefore for CI to design a completely new control philosophy and hardware to incorporate the new conveyors and also the existing portions of refurbished conveyors.


Marris says: “There are over 40 independent motors on the system together with more than 100 product position sensors. These are needed because the conveyor system is bi- directional across the link bridge and automatic in terms of its pallet cage marshalling. It also has to operate on two different floor levels – on a mezza- nine at the factory end and at ground level in the warehouse.”


In a special clean room in the fac- tory the full pallet cages are loaded onto a powered roller which feeds onto a scissor lift taking the cage up to a turntable. This rotates and feeds the cage onto a transfer car which takes it across the link bridge. It is then taken down to the ground floor by pallet lift onto a powered roller to the offload station in the warehouse. Here the cages are taken by forklift truck to the packing cell which is close by. The reverse operation sees the empty cages automatically transported from the onload station at the warehouse up in the lift and across the link bridge to be delivered at the offload station on the mezzanine in the factory. “The conveyor solution has now been up and running reliably 24 hours a day for the last three months,” concludes Marris. “It has enabled us to streamline our operation and reduce transport costs; we are also able to keep our prod- ucts inside a controlled environment all the way from production to despatch.”


CI Logistics www.conveyors.co.uk


T: 0116 276 1691 Enter 362


JULY/AUGUST 2011 Materials Handling & Logistics


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