WOODWORKING

on the requirements of the customers Manufacturing Execution System. The capability to operate separately or in tandem eliminates the limitations of transportation by a continuous conveyor belt. When combined with the range of machining and processing modules available, the result is a highly productive and flexible solution for the manufacture of furniture and kitchen products etc. which is capable of batch size of one production.

In the example of the turnkey system referenced here, multiple products are automatically presented to the system by Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV). With the AGV docked within the system, a robot is used to depalletise products one at a time and load them to the system for processing. The products are initially placed to an orientation/datum fixture before being loaded to the MTS which moves the product between the various processing stages. Products are positioned accurately at each of the different workstations, where robots – fitted with the appropriate end of arm tooling modules – drill, machine, or assemble the appropriate features required for that product.

The different product handling units are built upon Zimmer Group’s standard and reliable grippers with customised gripper fingers, ensuring long-term durability and system availability. State-of-the-art machining technology, thanks to motor spindles that have been developed in-house, provides maximum smooth operation and longevity, providing optimal levels of system uptime and availability. With typical products requiring to be processed and machined on both sides, once the parts have completed their first pass through the system, a robot loads them to an AGV which will then return them to the input side of the system. Here, they will once again be picked from the AGV by robot and re-loaded to the Modular Transport System to allow secondary processing operations to be performed on the other faces / sides of the product. On completion of these final machining or assembly operations the products are placed to an output conveyor for packaging. Another example of Zimmer Group innovation is virtualZ, the digital twin which revolutionises the processes performed throughout the life cycle of a system. In the design phase, virtualZ provides support in testing the system functionality and capacity based on a modelin-the-loop simulation by providing module and component models for the digital twin. In the development and commissioning phases, virtualZ offers comprehensive options for simulations from the software-in-the-loop simulation to the hardware-in-the-loop real-time simulation.

In the operational phase of the system, the digital twin virtualZ can operate as a digital shadow in a virtual space with a time delay from the real system to perform optimisations and validations via test runs in the virtual world. The digital shadow can interpolate wear in advance or display notes on the causes of this wear using comparison data.

The Zimmer Group has installed a number of fully automated turnkey systems for manufacturers within the woodworking sector, who are now benefiting from the flexibility and productivity these systems deliver.

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