Industrial production lines for bread often involve a changeover of product carriers. With conventional Gantry storage and exchange systems, we offer systems that allow our customers to easily and fully automatically switch from one type of product carrier to another. Given the fact that finding personnel is becoming increasingly difficult, the question arises what further opportunities for automation there are for storage systems.
Insight 1 - Deploying robot storage systems: the right automation for every situation
So-called Gantry systems are widely used for lines with many different types and large quantities of product carriers. In addition to these traditional Gantry storage facilities, Kaak also has so-called ‘robot storage systems’. “This is a cost-efficient robot solution, especially for production lines with one to four types of product carriers. The product carriers are placed in and out of the production line by means of a 4-axis robot. The product carriers are then stored in stacks, on a chain conveyor.”
Whether it is a Gantry or a robot storage system, the storage system will always have to be located directly next to the production line. “Customers with many different types of product carriers and many relatively short production runs, often have too little space right next to the line for all those product carriers. In those cases, one stacks product carriers on pallet trucks by hand and then drives them to a storage location further from the production location.”
Insight 2 - Dirty and heavy work? Robots are the solution
The corona pandemic has raised new questions and challenges, also in the field of automation. How to find staff for repetitive and physically demanding work? “Kaak has developed a robot cell that can be easily integrated into an existing line to remove product carriers fully automatically and place them in a line. Here, the product carriers are placed in trolleys by hand in the robot cell for loading the line. Conversely, empty carts are placed before the line is unloaded. If it fits within the cycle time and range of the robot, the input and output can happen simultaneously.” Teun emphasizes that even then there is still a question of ‘manual supply and removal of the carts with product carriers’. However, this system can easily be further automated using Automated Guided Vehicles (AGV): “In this way, the entire process is fully automated in one go.”
