Feeding large, fast press lines requires prepress equipment that can move product efficiently, safely, and accurately. That statement is especially true in the unforgiving high-volume world of automotive stamping. Heavy blanks must be fed quickly and accurately and with the safety of workers in mind.
Handling Specialty often works with prepress-automation integrators, placing custom-designed de-stacking systems in automotive OEM stamping facilities and plants. These facilities require robust material handling equipment to fulfill astronomical orders for steel body panels, doors, hoods, roofs, and floor panels every year. In order to accomplish these extraordinary feats, a stamping facility is automated with stationary de-stacking tables for feeding the presses. De-stacking tables index up as the blank stores are depleted, and once empty, another pre-loaded table takes its place.
AGVs are a perfect solution for the stamping industry, improving the rail-fed tables and further automating the processes. Automated guided vehicles can be fitted with indexing tables tooled to fit any size blank, and their increased maneuverability seriously elevates efficiency and timing, which is so important in this industry. Metal formers looking to maximize their production on high-volume parts can benefit immensely from AGV de-stackers.
Customized to lift and transport any capacity and maneuver in tight spaces with zero-radius turning and crabbing, an AGV can be customized to perform perfectly in any space. Safety is engineered into AGVs from the design stage, helping to ensure employee and product safety through employing proximity sensors, limit switches, audible alarms and lights. The intelligent controls are programmed to a customer’s unique requirements and can be reconfigured should the factory floor change without the expenses incurred with a traditional rail/cart system. AGVs follow a painted line or strip on the floor using an onboard laser guidance system.
The automotive stamping industry and AGVs have proven excellent partners over the years as the march to automation continues to improve the industry’s ability to increase production and efficiency.
When considering upgrading your stamping operation or building new, speak to the professional technical sales team at Handling Specialty.
