Bespoke feeding system with a record length of 15 metres

When large quantities need to be transported reliably, gently and in line with requirements, intelligent feeding systems are essential. RNA has developed a complete solution for a customer in the manufacturing industry that transports and delivers finished sleeves over a distance of 15 metres, from the machining centre to the automated robotic removal station.

The finished sleeves are transferred directly from the upstream machining centre to an RNA conveyor belt system from the FP120 series. The transistor line, which is 15 metres long in total, was realised using three conveyor belts arranged in series. This design not only simplifies transport and assembly at the customer’s site, but also ensures maximum flexibility.

The system features three width-adjustable conveyor lines that can be adapted to different workpiece geometries. The workpieces are transferred via the two outer lanes to downstream vibrating hoppers.

The centre drives of the conveyor belts, which are specially designed for high speeds, ensure a safe and even flow of material. Cutting edges on both sides also ensure a virtually gap-free transfer of workpieces at the inlet and outlet.

The specially configured vibrating hopper solution fulfils two key tasks: the storage of workpieces and their on-demand, metered feeding to the subsequent process.

A static hopper attachment ensures the sleeves are handled gently. The actual metering is carried out by two RNA linear feeders from the SLC500 series connected in series. Thanks to sensor-based communication between the linear feeders, the optimum quantity of workpieces is provided at all times.

A special coating protects the workpieces from damage throughout the entire conveying process. Control is achieved via level and presence sensors in combination with the ESR3000 series RNA frequency controllers – without the need for an additional PLC.

At the end of the process, a vibrating platform retrieves the workpieces from the hopper and positions them for the robot to access. The plate’s brush coating ensures particularly gentle transport.

Thanks to the mechanical tuning of the system, the workpieces are quickly separated and positioned at a sufficient distance from one another. Here, too, an SLC500 linear feeder is used in conjunction with an ESR3000 frequency controller.

With this solution, RNA once again demonstrates how conveyor technology, storage and robotics can be combined to form a high-performance integrated system – ensuring maximum process reliability, high efficiency and gentle workpiece handling.