Automated material flow offers manufacturers significant time and cost savings. With this in mind, KASTO has introduced a new system for efficiently transferring material automatically between its sheet metal storage towers and flat-bed processing plant, such as laser cutting machines and turret punch presses. It enables minimally attended production, achieves high throughput speeds and relieves staff of the laborious and potentially risky task of handling large metal sheets.
The system comprises two sheet manipulators suspended from a gantry projecting from the storage tower and two pick-and-place tables below. These are positioned side by side the same distance apart as the manipulators, the table nearer the tower being a similar distance from it and fixed to the floor. The second, shuttle table has a slatted surface and is rail-mounted, allowing it to travel to a production area and back.
The manipulators operate differently in that the one closer to the tower uses an array of suction cups to hold the sheet during lifting and lowering, whereas the other employs a rake-type gripper that opens so that the rake tips move further apart than the width of the sheet, allowing it to be lifted from underneath off the slatted shuttle table after the rakes have closed.
The manipulators always move horizontally in unison and vertically in opposite directions. They are not identical, as the vacuum type only handles fresh, flat sheets from the tower to the fixed table, while the rake type, in addition to passing that sheet to the shuttle table, is also required to lift and deposit processed material from the shuttle table to the fixed table. The latter, more secure method of handling is needed as the sheet may contain loose components that have to be supported. In any case, the material may have been distorted during machining, making suction cup adherence unreliable.
A similar rake-type manipulator is also present at the machine tool end of the rails, either to handle fresh and processed sheet automatically or to assist in their manual transfer between the moveable KASTO table the shuttle table serving the laser or punch press.
The system is not designed to return the sheet containing laser-cut or punched components back into the storage tower, although such fully-automatic operation can be supplied by KASTO with double pick-and-place stations and with manipulators moving independently, one above the other. In the semi-automatic configuration described above, the processed material is returned only as far as the fixed table, from where the sheet is taken by an operator to a shake-out station for removal of the parts and recycling of the skeleton.
Suitable not only for manufacturers but also sheet metal stockholders that add value to the material they supply, the automated handling system is customisable to suit the user’s requirements and the size of sheet being processed. Compatible with KASTO’s UNITOWER and UNILINE computer-controlled storage systems, the compact, space-saving interface ensures that it can be easily integrated into almost any sheet metal production environment.
