May, 2020
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Automated Component Storage: the Key to the Industry 4.0 Warehouse
Continued from page 21
needed, the system just grasps the reel and puts it on a shelf. When the reel is needed, the system grasps the reel through the center hole and de- livers it to the access door. What possible drawbacks can
this method have? The reel must be in good condition. Reels are general- ly made of plastic, but some are made of cardboard. A chipped reel, cracked reel, warped reel, broken reel, or in
before placing the next reel. Here the case system has a
huge advantage. When the bill of ma- terials for the kit is transmitted to the machine, the system will pull and stack up to 54 reels, without any op- erator present. When it is finished, it sounds an alarm to notify the opera- tor to come and remove the kit. The operator opens the door and removes the whole stack at one time. The cases make this possible, as
they form a neat and even stack, something not possible with bare reels. If more than 54 items are in the kit, the system will resume and pull a second stack of parts. When
loading parts into the system, the op- erator simply stacks the cases, places the stack into the machine, pushes a button and walks away. The case system requires only
10 seconds of operator time to pull 54 reels, while bare reel systems require at least 15 minutes of operator time. If the customer is comparing manual pulling of kits to the case system, over an hour of operator time is need- ed, while the case system needs only 10 seconds. The automated storage system using cases has considerable labor savings over the bare reel sys- tem, and huge labor savings over manual pulling of kits from shelves.
Page 23 The cases offer one more bene-
fit. The fact that the cases are stack- able allows secure handling of the components outside the machine. Trying to carry a stack of 50 bare plastic reels is difficult and risky. With the cases, the parts can be car- ried securely and protected from ESD at all times.
Moisture Sensitive Devices One of the features of most auto-
mated storage systems is their man- agement of MSD parts. The storage system can automatically maintain its internal humidity below five percent and automatically track the validity time for each individual component.
Continued on next page
Several different-height 15 in. cases inside an ISM 3600.
the case of cardboard, a floppy reel, can result in an unsuccessful trans- fer of the reel to or from the door of the machine, causing a jam and re- quiring manual intervention. Com- ponents in the JEDEC tray are also subject to the condition of the tray. A warped tray can often cause a jam. In a case-based system, each
component reel or tray is housed in an ESD-safe case. This simplifies the handling of the components by the storage systems, as each case has ex- actly the same dimensions and the condition of the reel or tray does not affect the reliability of handling. Also, the handling robot never
touches the reel, tray or the compo- nents inside. It only touches the exte- rior of the case, so no damage can ever occur to the components. In a flexible case design, the
clever design of the case allows the basic 0.3 in. (8 mm), 7 or 15 in. (178 or 380 mm) case to handle up to 3.5 in. (88 mm) thick reels or tray stacks. Expansion strips with quick-turn fasteners allows a base 0.3 in. (8 mm) case to be a 0.6 in. (16 mm) case by adding one strip, up to 3.5 in. (88 mm) in 0.3 (8 mm) increments. This way, the customer can adjust the case mix to match any component mix as it changes throughout the year, without needing to purchase different size cases.
Kits or One at a Time? The bare reel systems deliver
the components one at a time. After the bill of materials for the kit is transmitted to the system, each reel is delivered to the front door, and must be removed before the system delivers the next reel. So, it is neces- sary that an operator be at the ma- chine during the pulling of each kit. The same is true when loading com- ponents back into the storage sys- tem. One reel at a time is placed at the entrance by the operator, who must wait for the machine to take it
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