Residential/Commercial Appliance Material Handling
Midwest Engineered Systems completed an Upscale Residential Commercial Application Material Handling and Test In Motion Production System.
The Challenge
To design a complete material handling and control system solution that would accommodate the entire production flow and take each product through the rigorous testing process.- Design a test system to handle the production rate of one unit every 82 seconds.
- Minimize the amount of accumulation needed for these tests by utilizing overhead mobile electrification loops to test the refrigerators in motion.
- Design a wireless production test system for over 300 units testing simultaneously
- Design a custom data collection server solution to record all test data via wireless communication
- Incorporate RFID tags into the material handling control solution to track data to specific product serial numbers and product locations in the system.
- Design a distributed control system to handle over 1200 conveyor zone sections and 8000 points of discrete I/O
- Minimize noise from over three hundred pallet locations by using chain driven powered roller conveyors.
- Implement a distributed SCADA system for full process monitoring and control.
The Solution
- Implemented Testing in motion through the use of mobile electrification which greatly reduced the number of accumulation conveyors required to complete the extensive testing process..
- Developed a wireless data collection node and server using embedded processor technology
- Used wireless Zigbee technology to provide the ability to simultaneously test over 300 units.
- Implemented a distributed I/O architecture (ASI Bus) to effectively and efficiently control over 1200 conveyor zones
- Incorporated RFID technology to positively track and record production and test data
- Using powered chain driven live roller conveyors reduced the cost of spare parts and provided zone length flexibility for future product design.
- Chain transfers provided a means to automatically convey refrigerators to each workstation.
- Three high speed transfer cars eliminated the need for twenty-four chain transfers and provided a significant savings.
Impact to the Customer
- Streamlined the entire testing and production process.
- Provided the ability to test over 300 units simultaneously while in motion.
- Reliably tracked and recorded all production and test data by unique product serial number using RFID technology
- Products flow through the system with minimal operator intervention.
- System expansion is built into the design for future growth.
For more information on this equipment or other web handling needs please contact MWES.
