AUTOMATED HANDLING IN THE PHARMACEUTICALS INDUSTRY

This pharmaceutical installation is a good example of how a simple, stand-alone AGV network can be cost-effectively configured with laser guidance and radio communication to operate independently of existing factory systems. A further feature is the ease with which the layout was subsequently modified in 2011, after several years of operation, to make space for an additional production line.

The automated straddle-stacker trucks, which were originally supplied in 2007, transport mainly packaging materials from the warehouse to production. After packing, product is taken on pallets to a wrapping station, after which they are moved to a finished goods warehouse.

Previously, operators driving ride-on pallet trucks moved goods between the warehouse and factory over two and sometimes three shifts per day. Eliminating the associated labour costs soon justified investment in the automated system.

A notable feature of the installation is that the factory is some two metres higher than the warehouse, the height difference taking place over a 70 metre long ramp. The near three-degree incline is significant and had to be taken into account when the vehicles were engineered to carry loads weighing up to one tonne at 1 m/s up and down the ramp. AGV speed increases to a maximum of 1.5 m/s on the flat to maximise handling productivity.

With simplicity of operation in mind, another feature of the system is opportunity charging of the battery on board each vehicle at either of two designated stations on the route, eliminating the time-consuming task of exchanging a battery when it nears depletion. The cost of two additional swap-out batteries is also avoided.