Move your product effortlessly with Automated or Manually Guided Vehicles. Design your facility’s path, lay the magnetic stripe on the assembly floor and place your AGVs. With special, custom tooling to carry your product through the assembly process, you will build efficiency in your operations while assisting in creating a safer workplace for employees.
An example of these intelligently guided vehicles can be witnessed in a series of AGVs designed, built and installed for a truck-body builder who required specific application details and safety options. Twenty AGVs in all were delivered to the customer along with HMI control panels which operate the units, report on their readiness and alert operators when they require charging or maintenance. Each of the AGVs runs on 8 TPPL, 48 VDC voltage batteries, offering emergency stop, flashing lights, motion sensors, hand-operated control, brushless DC servo motor, laser guidance systems programmed to follow the smart tape, programmable speed settings, custom tooling and the ability to carry up to 12,000 lbs.
Automated Guided Vehicles supplied by Handling Specialty were custom engineered to meet the capacity and dimensional characteristics of the product as well as the duty cycle, custom tooling and speed requirements of their new assembly line. In this project, the AGVs were equipped with guidance sensors designed to read smart tape affixed to the shop floor, which was used to guide the automated vehicles along the assembly line. The AGVs provided forward/reverse, zero-turn and crabbing motion capabilities along with variable speed control.
Supporting lean manufacturing processes, Handling Specialty’s AGVs move the truck chassis along the assembly line and provide the flexibility to adjust production according to volume and schedule demands. Each AGV is equipped with onboard PLC control components which communicate wirelessly to a master control panel. The controls employ standardized architecture using commercially available, off-the-shelf components. The master control panel is equipped with a full-colour, feature-rich HMI which displays real-time production information, AGV positioning, diagnostics and other critical operational data.
Ergonomics and AGV/MGVs go hand in hand. Less physical push and pull on a trolley to move product from one workstation to the next while trying to place the product in an exact position can be very trying on a technician. This and the added bonus of precise positioning give the AGV an added edge.
A simple yet advanced system of airbags and wheels at the centre of the unit allows the platform to lift and spin 360 degrees when required.
Handling Specialty has developed a truly unique take on the traditional Automated Guided Cart/AGC and placed itself firmly in the future, where technology continues to assist the assembly line in efficiency, ergonomics and safety.
