Aerospace Material Processing

Task

A special material supplier to the Aerospace Industry had to transfer heavy duty frames loaded with aluminium sheets having a total weight of 1,000kgs between four process tanks. The first tank was filled with a liquid salt solution heated to 650°C, the second tank was a quench tank to bring the temperature of the material down quickly. The third tank is a rinse tank and the fourth tank was a drier. The overall process cycle time was quite long at 10 minutes, but it was important to transfer the frame from the salt solution into the quench tank in less than 9.6 seconds,meaning that the system needed to move at 2 metres per second.There were also height issues to overcome.

Solution

Güdel UK supplied a gantry module 28 metres long. The overall width of the frame was 4 metres, so to balance the weight, the gantry was supplied with 2 vertical beams, driven synchronously. To solve the height problems, the each vertical axis was manufactured as a 2-stage telescopic, enabling the gantry to fit under the roof.

Scope of supply

A special GÜDEL FP-6 gantry module was supplied with a Mitsubishi PLC with Bosch Indramat servo motors and drives. The gantry was supplied with all of the pneumatics to service the gripper unit and was tested prior to shipping and installation at the customer’s site.

Result

As a result of this installation the customer has increased his throughput by 15%. As the transfer time between the salt bath and the quench tank has reduced it has enabled him to take orders for a higher quality product; business he was not able to do before this installation.