The benefits of 24-volt conveyor systems
The material handling industry is responding with new equipment, technology and systems that enable them to complete supply chain “visibility.” A rapidly emerging technology in the live-roller conveyor arena is the 24-volt motorized drive roller (MDR) conveyor.
The traditional 480 volt conveyors require large electrical panels as well as onsite PLC programming. MDR retains most of the positive features of line-shaft or belt-driven live rollers, with a number of added advantages. Instead of a conventional gear-motor drive with a rotating shaft or belt driving a long conveyor, a 24-volt DC motor located inside the roller drives the zones of the conveyor. This allows for a high degree of flexibility and modularity in conveyor design. Though cost of the MDR’s per-ft. a bit on a higher side than the conventional conveyor, but it is a safe design as each zone can be stopped safely with a bare hand without any need for emergency pull cords or e-stops are needed.
24 volt conveyor systems offer various advantages including:
Reduced wiring cost and simplified diagnostics incorporated into the controls.
Cost savings due to the reduction of electrical power to run the units.
Significant drops in the noise level (as low as 65 dba), a positive ergonomic feature.
Built-in logic and controls (cartons will not touch each other, Zero Pressure Accumulation built in)
Installation only requires standard 110 volt plugin/drop
No onsite programming required
No PLC expenses
With the advent of latest technologies, gone are the days when material handling control systems were simply a collection of mechanical and control devices that cause objects to be moved from one place to another within the walls of a manufacturing, warehouse or distribution facility.
Subscribe to the comments for this postWhy not opt for automatic case splitters?
In the material handling world, one area which is often ignored and yet has many issues associated with it it cutting and opening of boxes for receiving and returns. Whe done manually, retailers and wholesalers often end up damaging the contents with the box knives. Also associated are high labor costs, injuries and high turnover making manual case splitting an expensive operation.
But there is a software solution out there in the market which can be of invaluable help in the handling of boxes. This is an automated case splitter which has many advantages. An automatic case splitter can be more helpful and cost effective as a basic splitter can open 600 cases per hour. On the other hand, using an advanced system you can open upto 1100 cases per hour. So, this becomes almost indispensable when bulk handling is concerned.
If you are worried about the cost of the system, let it be known that the system can be leased for as little as $1000/month, which is less than 1/2 of a single employee burden. Also consider the fact that the cost of a single injury from a box knife can cost a lot more than the machine that alleviates such injury
With a view of the present need to streamline, amplify throughput, and improve safety in this competitive world, there is no doubt to the fact that an automatic case splitter has become a must for most operations and facilities.
Various tire conveyors at your option
Special conveyers are required for tires. There are several types of tire conveyors in the market, some of them being:
Tire Rotation Conveyor: With this conveyor a tire is positioned on the tire rotation conveyor to receive its protective whitewall coating. The tire is spun by a powered face diverter, pneumatically actuated. A pneumatic cylinder moves the powered face diverter assembly into the required position. Finally, the diverter assembly is powered by an electric gearmotor which then delivers circular motion to the tire.
Tire Conveyor with Pneumatic Lift: With this conveyor a tire is centered on belt driven live roller conveyor with a dual-side pneumatically actuated roller positioner (diverter). This diverter also acts as a “stop” for the tire. After the tire is centered, the dual-side positioner releases the tire onto the discharge section of the live roller which features a pneumatically actuated lift section. The lift section raises the tire to a second elevation for other tire manufacturing operations. After this, the tire is lowered to its original position and conveyed off of the live roller conveyor and the process goes on.
Spiral Line Shaft Drive Tire Inverter: During tire manufacturing process, tires may have to be inverted or “flipped”. Line shaft driven live roller is designed to flip tires with this modified line shaft conveyor. Special galvanized channel guard rails with skate wheels attached to both guard rail flanges are located on the lower side of this special conveyor.
Mascus introduces a new heavy machinery directory
Mascus is an electronic marketplace for used farm machinery, forestry, and groundscare equipment and transport vehicles and includes a wide range of products including used tractors, used trailers, used trucks, diggers, box trailers, mini diggers and excavators. By bringing about demand and supply in one place, Mascus makes trading in used machinery and equipment quicker and more efficient by eliminating the cost of middlemen.
Now, the company has added ‘Mascus Locator’, a new product to its portfolio, which is a directory listing companies and dealers involved in the heavy machinery business from all over the world.
Mascus Managing Director, Fredrik Larsson says, “The Mascus Locator directory is a new concept for us. Up until now, the name ‘Mascus’ has stood for marketplaces for used machinery and trucks, but from now on Mascus will also host a heavy machinery directory. We are no longer just a used equipment marketplace, as we develop into a worldwide premium media of heavy machinery and transportation vehicles,” he adds.
Why a heavy machinery directory?
Tomasz Odrobinski, Mascus Marketing/Internationalization Director, explains the need for a heavy machinery directory saying, “Adding a new product to our portfolio was a natural progression for Mascus. We have been growing continuously, adding new countries, languages and markets to our used machinery/trucks e-marketplace, and have become aware of the potential in developing a worldwide heavy machinery directory. We have been in the market for almost nine years, and now we have the knowledge and experience to help our customers to market and sell their products and services. That is how the idea of developing a heavy industry directory was born and implemented.”
“You do not have to sell used construction, agricultural, groundscare, forestry machines, material handling equipment or transport vehicles to be on Mascus Locator,” says Robert Tate, Mascus UK & Ireland Region Manager. “You can also be listed if you sell new machinery/trucks, tractors, trailers, accessories, spare parts, or provide financial, transport, rental, hire or other services. Our directory is about all companies around the globe that want to achieve international exposure with just a single investment - a subscription to Mascus Locator,” he adds.
Any company involved in the heavy machinery/trucks business can be listed in Mascus locator. Mascus Locator offers three types of subscription packages according to the exposure that customers are looking for. However, just an entry in the directory does not cost anything.
ATMI receives two awards from SI magazine this year
Semiconductor International magazine announced ATMI’s SDS(r) and AutoClean(r) System solutions as Editors’ Choice Best Products for 2009 at the awards breakfast held at the Westin San Francisco Hotel. SI editors declare the winners on the basis of feedback from actual customers in the field. With this, ATMI becomes the only company to receive two honors this year.
ATMI specializes in innovations in efficiency and safety for semiconductor and life science manufacturing and its SDS System is an innovative and patented cylinder technology that provides the safest known method for transport, storage, and use of highly toxic dopant gases. The AutoClean System provides a simpler, safer and environment friendly method of improving tool efficiency along with doing away with the hazards of removing deposited toxic materials with its in-situ ion implanter cleaning technology.
“The Editors’ Choice Best Products awards program acknowledges products, materials, and services that are proven in the manufacturing environment,” said Laura Peters, Editor-in-Chief of Semiconductor International (SI).
ATMI, Richard Fricke, Senior Director of Implant Technologies, said that his company is celebrating the 15th anniversary of its SDS technology this year. “Those of you in the industry at the time will recall that SDS represented a major breakthrough in safety when it was introduced in 1994. We’ve continuously improved the technology so it remains a must-have in our customers’ fabs,” said Fricke adding, “We’re thrilled by this award, not only because it recognizes ATMI’s lasting contributions to the industry, but also because it’s based on customer feedback.”
“We have a saying within ATMI — ‘innovation is no accident,’” added Fricke. “I’d like to recognize ATMI’s extremely dedicated employees for their hard work in bringing both the SDS and AutoClean solutions to market and ensuring continuous innovation for impact and safety.”
ECEL ties up with Zoomlion to market its truck cranes in India
In order to market a wide range of Truck cranes and All-Terrain truck cranes in India, Escorts Construction Equipment Limited (ECEL) has signed an agreement with Hunan Zoomlion International Trade Co. Ltd. of China. Escorts will now market Zoomlion’s range of Truck Cranes which includes 12T-150T and All-Terrain Truck Cranes which includes 180T-350T.
ECEL is the manufacturing arm of Escorts dealing with the construction equipment and material handling equipment. Currently ECEL has a wide variety of Pick-n-Carry cranes 5T-23T, Rough Terrain Slew Cranes 17T-40T under its Crane Product portfolio.
Hunan Zoomlion International Trade Co. Ltd. is among the world’s top 10 mobile crane manufacturers and part of the US$ 4 billion Zoomlion Group. This mobile crane branch of Zoomlion has been developing and manufacturing mobile cranes for the past 40 years.
Kanwal Kishore Vij, CEO & Executive Director, Escorts Construction Equipment Limited supported the tie-up saying, “ECEL pioneered the Construction & Earth Moving Equipment industry in India and plans to further consolidate its leadership position in this segment of the industry. Given the planned growth and focus on infrastructure projects like flyovers and bridges, this arrangement will provide a boost to ECEL’s ongoing growth plans. The launch of these truck cranes and All- Terrain truck cranes are further expected to complement ECEL’s existing range of Material handling equipment solution and hope to cater to large construction companies, engaged in infrastructural development”.
He further added, “Zoomlion is one of the most preferred brands in the worldwide construction machinery industry due to its continued innovation and focus on meeting customer needs, the same ethos as of ECEL. The synergy in business philosophy of both the entities is sure to provide some highly exciting offerings for our customers in the domestic markets”.
Commenting on the tie-up Xiong Yanming, vice-president, Zoomlion Group said, “We are pleased to collaborate with Escorts Group to elevate their market presence and expansion initiatives. I have great expectation from the co-operation between Escorts Group, India and Zoomlion, China as both companies have strategic importance in the history of construction equipment industry as reputed companies in their respective countries and internationally.”
Before you automate your systems -material handling system
You have long worked your material handling system manually but now, you have decided that it is time to automate your systems, but before you plug in the system and turn on the switch, just consider these points to decide whether or not you are ready to automate. If automation is not meant for your industry at this stage, even the best designed system will fail to deliver.
Check whether your company has the higher level of technological expertise required for automated systems well in place because if the in-house expertise is lacking and there is no backing to support system on a long term basis, it is better to wait before you automate.
Compare and analyze the total cost which will go into automating your system because even though you will do away with the cost of material handlers in the manual system, there will be a host of extra cost in automating the system which will include the new information support staff, expensive technicians and maintenance personnel beside the cost of the system.
Get your backup support ready in case you have a system failure because even though automated systems are more reliable than ever, but if you do not have a backup system which will keep your business running on occasions when the automated systems go down, you may be at a complete loss.
Upgrade your computer and your electrical systems to deal with the new system as the insurance on a multi-million dollar system is more than on a building with racks, and you’re now going to maintain an inventory of spare parts to keep the system up and running.
Management of warehouses by purchase professionals
There has been a trend these days to make purchasing professionals responsible for management of the warehouse. This can indeed be considered a logical step given the similarities between purchasing and warehouse management.
To begin with, use of metrics is common both to purchasing professionals and warehouse performance, too. As a purchasing officer with the responsibility of warehousing, you can start with these metrics as pick lines per hour, orders processed per hour and the age of oldest unshipped order.
Similar to that in purchasing, you can adopt many practices in warehouse management too. Two of such practices can be effective slotting tools and bar coding.
Effective slotting tools include the placement of high-volume items close to the point of shipping, use of clear slotting information under each item on the shelf, using the same slotting information on pick documents, and sorting the slot numbers into a sequence that supports a “no-backtrack” path for the picker.
Bar codes can help ensure that the right incoming product is put in the right place and that the right outgoing product is picked in the right quantities. Bar code picking ensures a faster and an accurate picking. This leads to cost savings and the result in noticed in just about six months. Managing warehouse efficiently can lead to labor cost savings of 30 to 50%.
Government gets stricter on storage regulations of hazardous materials
The Government has finally decided to penalize the manufacturers with hefty fines going up to the limit of temporary plant closures if the storage cabinets do not meet regulations while storing raw material from paint to corrosives.
Heavy penalties will also be imposed if fishermen are caught going over the limit, be it catching too many trout on a line or a huge trawler netting too many tons of albacore in the middle of the open ocean. Heavy penalties will make sure that fishermen do not dare to break regulations ever again.
Same goes for improperly storing hazardous materials as the the Ministry of Environment is adopting the same approach as fish and game wardens to penalise companies improperly handling and storing hazardous material. If these regulations are fully implemented, the manufacturers better follow regulations while stroing raw material from paint to corrosives and other contaminants.
There was a need for these tough, new and potentially very costly penalties as industrial fires are getting increasingly common and dangerous and one of the major cause of these accidents is improperly stored and handled flammable liquids. Now, the Government will ensure that businesses identify and inventory any chemicals in the workplace, and store them in code-compliant safety cabinets. If an inspector finds non-compliance, then your unit definitely calls for a trouble.
Tips for intsalling pallet storage racks
Properly trained personnel are required for the installation of pallet storage racks because if racks are not assembled properly they not only lead to poor performance but can also pose hazard to the safety of those who handle them. Training becomes all the more important in case of installing a drive-in-rack job, multi-level pick system, push back rack, pallet flow rack or a roller rack system. All of these systems require a different level of training.
Some important points to be taken care of include:
* The rack structure be installed in a plumb level and square condition.
* Nut and bolt connections should be tightened to a snug and secure condition.
* Safety locks use fully engaged through the beam connectors and upright column connector holes to prevent accidental dislodgement of the load beams.
* Every foot plate of each rack frame must be anchored to an adequate concrete floor.
* Avoid installing racks outdoors unless specifically designed by Material Flow or someone like them.
* Be careful when intermingling new and existing parts because even components made by the same company can vary in design.
* Be sure to install capacity plates signs.
* Allow for adequate aisle spacing.
* Use only pallets of the best quality. Avoid using broken boards, portruding nails and the like as they can cause palletized loads to fall from racks.
* Regular inspection of your rack system is a must which involves checking that the anchor nuts are tight and other nuts and bolts are secure or whether safety locks and clips are bent or missing and so on.