Innovative conveyor for agricultural machinery finishing

Large parts up to 10 m long, 2.5 m high and 4 t in weight are painted, including for large coffee and sugar cane harvesters as well as planting and fertilising machines. To speed up the time-consuming dip coating process, product carriers can be combined for smaller workpieces and separated again for larger workpieces.

The Brazilian agricultural machinery manufacturer Jacto is one of the largest manufacturers of planting, fertilising, spraying and harvesting machines in South America. The company is currently building a new plant. This includes an automated coating system for large parts with conveyor technology from Vollert: two lift stations, six manipulators with a span of 12 metres and a discharge station ensure that the workpieces are distributed between the five process lines, which are around 100 metres long. The intralogistics specialists combine different drives such as friction wheels and rack and pinion slides on the manipulators and ensure damage-free transport to the work stations with their level 1 control system.

Automated transport of finishing parts

The transport and pushing on and off of the product carriers is automated throughout the entire coating system. At the beginning, two Vollert lift stations guide the product carriers with the workpieces into a 10 metre high double-decker buffer store, where they are stored by two manipulators and fed into the conveyor line to the washing booth and blasting on demand. Three further manipulators, distributed on a track, then take over the loading and unloading of the product carriers to the pre-treatment and cathodic dip painting (CDP) tanks and then transfer them to the parallel lines for drying, wet painting or powder coating.

At the end, a final manipulator takes the coated workpieces to the inspection stations and back to the two-storey parts buffer, from where they are transferred to further production via a discharge station. There are also several buffer stations at different points in the system to enable the workpieces to be ejected or pulled forward at any time. Safety devices secure the automatic areas of the manipulators as well as the manual work areas with personnel traffic. The feeding stations are protected by personnel light barriers, among other things.

Conveyer system allows faster processing

In order to reduce the throughput times in the dip tanks and drying booths, Vollert is realising combination options for several product carriers in the Jacto system for the first time. While all workpieces must be freely accessible while hanging from a product carrier during blasting and painting, product carriers with smaller workpieces can be combined during the time-consuming dip coating and drying processes. Three guide rails were arranged in parallel on the manipulators for this purpose. The packages consisting of one, two or three product carriers are formed in the dipping station. For control reasons, these collected parts must form a batch that matches in terms of dipping and drying times.

Thanks to the three parallel rails, the manipulator is able to pick up up to three individual product carriers – even from different buffer locations – and then transfer them collectively to the dip coating or drying stations. After drying during storage in the buffer store, the collected product carriers are then separated again. “The three-lane collection and separation of the product carriers was interesting for us in terms of control technology, as was the associated data management of the workpieces. As a result, we achieve significantly faster throughput times,” explains Jens Tangel, the responsible project manager for sales at Vollert.

Elaborate conveyor control

Correct control of the various drives on the manipulators is also important. Acceleration and travelling speed must be optimally coordinated to prevent the workpieces from oscillating. Speeds of 1 – 8 m/min are realised on the process lines. The manipulators travel 85 metres at 1.5 m/min.

“The success of the project and the smooth commissioning also depend on the interface coordination with all parties involved on the construction site,” explains Wesley Gomes, Managing Director of Vollert do Brasil. On-site support and coordination was provided by Vollert’s Brazilian subsidiary based in Belo Horizonte. The engineering and production came from Vollert in Germany.

More Information: www.vollert.de