MIXING, WEIGHING & CONVEYING FEATURE CONVEYOR NEVER ‘TYRES’ OF BOOSTING PRODUCTIVITY


An Autarky Automation conveyor system has helped reduce wheel and tyre assembly and inflation time by a factor of ten at Tyre-Line, from 70 to 7 seconds


A


custom designed and engineered conveyor system, from Autarky


Automation, is playing a key role in helping Tyre-Line, a supplier of wheel and tyre assemblies, boost productivity and quality. Installed as part of major production line upgrade, along with a Hofmann high speed inflating machine, the new system has reduced assembly and inflation time by a factor of ten, from around seventy to just seven seconds. Tyre-Line produces wheel and tyre


assemblies for many applications, from garden tractors to sports cars, with the bulk of the company’s business being the supply of wheels for trailers and caravans. Managing director, Edward Musson, explained: “Until recently, our assembly process was largely semi-automated. This was relatively slow and inflexible, which made it difficult to handle different sizes of wheels and tyres; due to its age, it had also become increasingly unreliable. With demand growing for our products we recognised that we had to take a fresh approach and contacted a number of potential suppliers, who we thought might be able to help us develop a suitable solution that matched our budget and specification, while future-proofing our business. “It quickly became clear that Autarky


Automation understood our business and the challenges that we faced, and that they had the experience and technologies to build a suitable solution. In fact, they


went far further than simply building a system to our specification, as they worked with our production team to carry out a full design and needs assessment. As part of this process they developed solutions to potential problems that we’d not even considered; this completely changed our approach and resulted in a system that far surpassed our original criteria, in terms of performance, flexibility and future scalability.” The Hofmann tyre inflation machine


forms the heart of the new system. Capable of inflating each tyre in just seven seconds, the machine has infeed and outfeed conveyors, with the latter comprising two separate spurs: one for automotive wheels that need balancing and one for all other wheels. Wheel rims and tyres are assembled and


labelled with a unique bar code at the start of the infeed conveyor, with an extended track and additional loading and queuing zones leading up an inclined track to match the height of the tyre inflation machine. Immediately prior to the inflation


machine is a bar code reading station. This comprises an array of three camera units, positioned so that they can read barcode labels placed at any angle or position on the wheel rims. The information from each bar code is automatically transferred to the tyre inflation machine, to control the inflation pressure; it also allows a dimensional check to be carried out,


BESPOKE CHAIN SOLUTION REDUCES REPLACEMENT BY A HALF


A waste to energy incineration plant in the Netherlands has seen the working life of the chains on its bottom ash conveyor double, thanks to bespoke chains developed by Tsubaki. One of the operational challenges that all waste to energy plants has to address is ash handling. Most


operators use bottom ash handling systems and plant builders have developed standard, customised and bespoke equipment for this. In practice, the ash is so hot that allowing it to cool naturally would take an impractically long time. Instead


it is cooled with water, as a spray or in a bath, which opens up another possible benefit of heat energy recovery. Unfortunately, the resulting wet ash can be very abrasive and is notoriously difficult to handle. The waste to energy plant was producing significant amounts of energy, and initially accepted the fact that,


due to the abrasive particles found in the application environment, it had to replace the chains that drove its ash conveyor every 12 months. This meant severe disruption to the main power generation operations. In order to solve the problem, the company asked experts from chain maker Tsubaki about possible


approaches for reducing the downtime created by having to replace worn chain. After some investigation, which included analysis of samples of worn chain, dry ash and wet ash slurry, Tsubaki recommended a bespoke solution. This solution included additional hardening for each of the rollers’ outer diameter surface, inner diameter surface and the surface of the bushes.This would reduce wear and increase service life. The composition of the pins was reformulated with a view to reducing pitting caused by corrosion; in fact,


once installed, it was found that this eliminated it all together. This means the chains will wear evenly and predictably, avoiding uneven wear that can prove catastrophic to normal efficient operations. The result is that the power plant now needs to replace its conveyor chain only every two years, half as


often as previously. Productivity has increased accordingly; which increases revenue and profitability. Tsubaki


 tsubaki.eu


The entire system has been designed to minimise the risk of damage to each assembly


confirming that the correct combination of tyre and wheel rim has been fitted. Musson pointed out: “Interconnecting


the bar code reading station and tyre inflation machine allows us to run any rim and tyre configuration, in any combination, without the need for changing the system setup. This is a major boost to productivity and gives us the ability to run just a single wheel, or any batch size.” The entire system has been designed to


minimise the risk of damage to each assembly. For example, transfer units automatically align each assembly on the centre line of the conveyor, to prevent contact with side rollers, with all rollers being fitted with soft PVC sleeves. The downward sloping outfeed unit features inertia braking to control the speed with which the finished assembly is presented to the operator, while loading points use plastic raise/lower beds to make it easier for operators to load and unload wheel assemblies. Additionally, each wheel assembly is automatically kept within an independent zone, to prevent contact between wheels in the event of backup before the inflation machine. The solution developed by Autarky


Automation uses 24V DC motorised drive rollers throughout, with Siemens PLC and HMI to control the conveyors, transfer units and barcode readers; data is communicated to the Hofmann controller via a standard Profinet industrial network. The system provides the foundation for the company’s long-term growth, and offers scalability as needs change. Musson concluded: “The new system


also gives us traceability of every assembly, so we can improve quality control still further; and by reducing manual handling we have also benefited from improved operator safety, with the ability to redeploy skilled staff to other operations within the business.”


Autarky Automation www.autarky.com/home


PROCESS & CONTROL | MAY 2019 25


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