Intelligent Handling At The Service Of The Sustainable Factory

The adoption of automation technologies is an essential step for companies that want to enable sustainable manufacturing: investments in 4.0 technologies, in addition to offering benefits in terms of productivity, also allow to improve the environmental impact through the choice of raw materials—greener, different construction techniques and adopting systems aimed at energy saving. From the factory layout to quality control for waste reduction, up to the handling of products along the line: sustainability within the plant is pursued by acting on many facets that allow greater flexibility to be enabled – to respond quickly to customization needs -and reduce downtime and production waste.

The Contribution Of Intelligent Handling Systems To The Sustainability Of Production

B&R deals with these innovative automation technologies for machinery and plants, a company part of the ABB group that combines cutting-edge technology and advanced engineering to provide customers in every industrial sector with complete solutions for machine and factory automation, the motion control for human-machine interface and integrated safety technologies.

An innovation that the company constantly pursues along the line of flexibility to make the machine “adaptive.” “The common thread is flexibility because each manufacturer is required to have genuinely challenging flexibility.

The new intelligent handling systems for components in the production lines developed by the company move precisely in this direction, optimizing production and maintenance and enabling much faster and more sustainable project management. These systems allow each product to be moved independently from the others through the processing stations, overcoming the constraints imposed by the conveyor belts. B&R launched Acopos 6D, an intelligent handling system based on the principle of magnetic levitation. The system consists of shuttles that integrate permanent magnets that keep them suspended above the continuous surface created by electromagnetic motor segments.

The modular motor segments measure 240 x 240 millimeters (so the footprint is tiny) and can be freely arranged to create any shape of the movement space. “There is no longer the linear concentration of space because the six dimensions arrive: the slates move along the x and y axes, by tilting, also along the z-axis, thanks to the magnetic levitation which also allows vertical and inclined movement – explains Torres – “Then there is the rotation in three dimensions, and this allows us to move as we want. For example, suppose there are three types of filling with customizations at the subsequent manufacturing level. In that case, it is not a problem because by moving freely, we can move the product where it is needed “.

R&B Automation Breaks Are Back

The company develops solutions starting from the needs of customers, with a path that is often also challenging, always oriented towards collaboration and transparency. This is why R&B has created Automation Breaks, short-term online appointments where the company virtually opens the doors of its offices to show how these challenges are faced and talk about its products. Not only Safety: blackout mode”, in which it will be highlighted how B & R’s blackout mode function allows applications to continue operating in one mode. Pre-programmed, even in the presence of network communication problems. Safe control of I / O and servo drives (ACOPOSmulti, ACOPOSmotor, or ACOPOS P3) avoids downtime without costly redundancy solutions to ensure maximum machine availability. For example, even during network failures, the axes can be stopped or moved to a defined position or execute a sequence of commands through simple software programming.

Also Read: Sustainable Management With Artificial Intelligence