TaskTo ensure continued production during unmanned shifts, a manufacturer of steel doors wished to automate the processing of the various sheet metal workpieces. The load, weighing just 36 kg, is relatively small. On the other hand, there is a wide range of workpiece dimensions to be taken into account.
The Gripper Unit had to be capable of handling the complete range of workpieces. An additional challenge is posed by the geometry of the sheets, which are perforated over wide areas after the stamping process. In order to achieve the set cycle time, two gantries sharing the same work area was necessary. The Gantries collect the blank sheets of metal from infeed roller tables and then delivers them to the Sheet Cropping Process at the other end of the line. The gantry carriage handling the sheet metal moves in the lower position in the direction of the Cropping process, whilst the second empty gantry carriage moves in the upper position and crosses over the lower loaded carriage. The second carriage collects the next available blank sheet.
SolutionThe GÜDEL solution is based on innovative wireless technology. The result is an arbitrary number of independent carriages where no energy chains prevent the carriages from moving freely along the area of movement on the longitudinal axis. An extension arm on the Z-axis provides access to the work area shared by the parallel opposed gantries. With the offset from the center of the Z-axis to the C-axis (the C axis provides sheet rotation through 90° in the horizontal plane), a displacement of 650mm is achieved. The gripper system designed for this application is a large-area vacuum lifter. This gripper has been designed to meet specific requirements of a light-weight and compact construction, where the height could not exceed 10 cm. Scope of supplyThe basic system is a size ZP4 linear gantry. Both linear gantries are equipped with 3 axes (X,Z,C). All of the drives are controlled by wireless technology. The automation has an interface with two different machine types (cut-to-length line & leveling machine). The communication between the different processes in the cell is managed by a higher level network. For safety purposes, the entire work area is closed off by a safety fence. Safety doors allow entry to the plant; these doors are supervised by the gantry control system. GÜDEL manufactured the entire control system in-house, as well as the software necessary for operating the system. ResultBy achieving both the automation and the required short cycle time, the modularity of the GÜDEL systems made it possible to deliver the customer's goal | 
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