Automation Update - Issue 93

Simplydone.

VARIO-X is the decisive step towards the future! Agile manufacturing, sustainability or Industry 4.0 – thanks to 100 percent automation without control cabinets. Modular, flexible and future-proof, Vario-X brings your machines and systems into the future with decentralized installation technology. future. It‘s that simple.  SIMPLY DONE NOW! www.vario-x.com/uk

Publication Director

Kane Weller

01843 580 460

Kane@engineering-update.co.uk

Editor

Leigh Little

01843 267 690

leigh@engineering-update.co.uk

Publishing Director

Jodie Little

jodie@jetdigitalmedia.co.uk

01843 595818

Editorial Assistant

Laura Sharpe

01843 448 443

laura@engineering-update.co.uk

AUTOMATION UPDATE

Automation Update is an engaging, editorially led publication & directory giving the reader news and updates on new products and services to our ever Progressing industry.

Publishing House

Jet Digital Media Ltd The Forge, Spratling Court Offices, Manston, Kent CT12 5AN

www.jetdigitalmedia.co.uk www.automation-update.co.uk

SICK

Launches Next Generation

WLL80 Fibre Optic Sensors

SICK has launched its next generation, intelligent and powerful WLL80 Fibre Optic Sensors, designed for easy configuration and highly-versatile integration into machinery and conveyor systems wherever rapid, high accuracy detection is required in confined spaces.

The SICK WLL80 fibre optic amplifier can be teamed with SICK’s new LLX portfolio of state-of-the-art fibres. Any length of flexible LLX fibres up to 20m can be specified alongside a versatile range of sensor heads. With IO-Link communication as standard, the WLL80 enables easy integration, reduces cabling, and ensures efficient and responsive machine control.

Easy to set up and adjust

The SICK WLL80’s user-friendly OLED pushbutton display makes setting or adjusting application parameters quick and easy. Set up over IO-Link is also straightforward, enabling sensor data to be output in real time for diagnostics and troubleshooting, as well as rapid replacement. By using Smart Tasks for pre-defined parameter configurations, reliable detection of fast-moving, small or transparent objects is assured, as well as precise detection of leading edges.

The SICK WLL80 is therefore ideal for reliable detection duties in tight spaces, such as detecting the leading edges of printed circuit boards, detecting and counting rapidly falling small metal components or pharmaceutical products, or performing presence detection duties on small robot grippers.

The SICK WLL80 achieves very high detection rates with rapid response times. Repeatability is assured thanks to the WLL80’s continuous threshold adaption (CTA) function, which enables the sensor to stay operational for extended time periods without intervention while adapting the signal strength, e.g. in a dusty environment, or because of contamination build-up on the fibre heads.

The WLL80’s intuitive pushbutton OLED display enables the fibre optic amplifier to set up easily to adapt to conditions on-site. Users can also use SICK’s free SOPAS software engineering tool for parameterisation and to optimise the signal strength.

Versatile Integration

By being able to switch between PNP, NPN or push-pull outputs on the same device, users need only one type of Sick WLL80 fibre optic

amplifier for all machine controls, reducing inventory. The WLL80 is compatible with common bus protocols and its internal logic also enables several sensors to be networked together, without the risk of interference. SICK WLL80 sensors can be organised in banks in a master-slave configuration to enable automatic cloning of parameter settings for multiple devices.

The SICK LLX range of fibres achieves new levels of configurability. The SICK LLX offers 500 different fibre types and a wide range of threaded and smoothsleeve heads, with both axial and radial head alignment available. The SICK fibre optic sensor range offers highly versatile application options for problem-free length adjustment at an excellent price/ performance.

For more information please contact Andrea Hornby on 01727 831121 or email andrea.hornby@sick.co.uk

www.sick.co.uk

TIDAL TURBINE TO LIGHT THE THAMES

A small proportion of the Thames is to be illuminated using power generated by the flow of the river itself, as Kingston University tests prototypes of a new hydroelectric turbine design.

The turbine will sit on a pontoon and will provide a floating test and measurement laboratory. On this will be an array of sensors and monitors, including a TorqSense the wireless torque sensor from Sensor Technology Ltd.

"To say that this is a harsh environment for laboratory equipment is a bit of an understatement," says Rod Bromfield, Senior Lecturer, of the Faculty of Engineering, Kingston University. "We can only use robust kit with a proven industrial pedigree."

The turbine under test has been developed by Hales Marine Energy near Eastbourne on the English

south coast and is expected to be deployable in tidal seas as well as rivers.

The design application of this turbine is to sit on a submergible tank that will sit on the sea bed and can be floated up to the surface when required. Significantly, the design is almost infinitely scalable: the unit under test is 1m diameter and produces about 1kW; 5m turbines suitable for inshore deployment would generate round 20kW; smaller units would be ideal for river use. With access to the test site being by small boat, Rod knew that his test regime had to be both simple and comprehensive.

"The critical measurement is torque, as this indicates the power we can derive from the system. We had to be certain that

we would get continuous measurements over an extended period of time, because we need to map power production against actual river flow. Also for this technology to succeed in the emerging green power market it must be capable of continuous and predictable energy production." One of the engineering issues that Rod faced was the relatively slow revolution of the turbine, in this test below 50rpm. This helped define the choice of the TorqSense, but it is also a key feature of the Hales turbine - the slow speed means less stress on moving parts and therefore less servicing. It also minimises habitat disturbance, so that the ecological impact is low.

"When I contacted Sensor Technology I was very concerned about vertical mounting

and harsh environment performance," recalls Rod. "Fortunately there have been TorqSenses installed vertically, including several high up on vertical axis wind turbines, where they have to withstand gales, hurricanes and lashing rain."

Turbine

The design of the Hales turbine is reassuringly simple, and therefore likely to survive underwater installation with long service intervals. It was developed by Paul Hales, a design engineer who has spent a career associated with the sea. "It’s based on the traditional water wheel, but mounted on a vertical axis - on its side," he explains. "Using modern engineering and materials it is possible to take this effective early turbine and by turning the output shaft to the vertical to immerse the whole turbine into the tidal flow. To overcome

the high resistance on the wheel blades that on one side are trying to move against the water flow, they are shaped and hinged to present a minimum resistance. The large blade area on the drive side produces very high amounts of torque (rotational force) at low speed, in the range of 10 -20rpm. Coupled with modern permanent magnet generators that can start producing electricity rotations as low as 2rpm, my turbine can offer the possibility of tidal generation worldwide.”

Paul continues: "Water is nearly 800 times denser than air so it carries far more energy, making water turbines a very attractive alternative to wind energy. Notably seabed systems are not an impediment to shipping, nor do they have any visual impact and ecological issues are minimal for low speed systems."

Paul says that he could envision an array of his turbines on every headland along the English Channel and at intervals down the Thames.

"Of course, that is just the start. The simplicity of the design, its robustness and low maintenance, relative ease of installation all add up to making it suitable for deployment in remote and less developed areas. Its low ecological footprint addresses many of the issues raised by environmentalists. Its continuous and utterly predictable power output overcomes the intermittency associated with wind, wave and solar power.

"When, over the test period, people stand on Richmond Bridge and watch a modest array of lights bobbing about on a buoy, they may not know it but they will be seeing the future!"

www.sensors.co.uk

Standalone Flow Chemistry Module for Exothermic Reactions

Uniqsis has launched ColdChip™ - a new versatile mixer/reactor module enabling researchers to experiment with different chemistries particularly exothermic reactions that need to be safely run in a cooled environment with highly efficient mixing.

Compact in design, and requiring no input power, the ColdChip™ is optimised for use with the Uniqsis FlowSyn and FlowLab range of flow reactors as well as standalone pumps.

Designed to work with most recirculating chiller/heater units - the ColdChip™ can deliver a stable operating temperature (-70ºC to +180 ºC) and pressure (up to 40 Barr) environment in glass static mixer chips ranging from lower volumes (270µl, 1ml or 2 ml) to single residence time chips (10, 15 and 20 ml).

To enhance operator safety and ease-of-use the ColdChip™ includes a PTFE safety cover, a glass window to view the glass static mixer and an open area located at the back for easy access to the glass static mixer inlet/outlet turret connectors.

For further information please visit www.uniqsis.com/ or contact Uniqsis on +44-845-864-7747 / info@uniqsis.com.

ColdChip™ mixer/reactor module

SICK’s

Distance

Sensor – An ‘All-Rounder’ with Countless Possibilities

The stand-alone and compact SICK OD2000 has been developed to provide a universal product family with minimal variants, while making configuration and parameterisation ‘plug and play’. With IO-Link as standard, the SICK OD2000 offers highly-versatile machine integration possibilities, while providing for diagnostics and condition monitoring.

With a large measuring range up to 1,200mm, as well as a measuring frequency of up to 7.5 kHz, the OD2000 will therefore be a trusted solution for wide-ranging positioning and quality control tasks in automated production and assembly, including robotics. Using its high-precision triangulation measurement principle, the OD2000 achieves high repeatability and linearity, and it can detect the smallest

differences in height, even in the micrometre range.

With five different measuring ranges between 25 and 1,200 mm, the SICK OD2000 is ready to master any task, including demanding, high-speed measurement regardless of surface, diameter, thickness or width. It is can also solve challenging background suppression

applications where precise distance differentiation or small hysteresis settings are required.

SICK has launched its next-generation OD2000 distance sensor, combining high-precision reliability with outstanding economy to deliver a versatile ‘all-rounder’ for multiple applications in factory automation and intralogistics.

Useful for almost any industrial application, the price/performance advantages of the new SICK OD2000 family are expected to be especially welcomed by production teams, system integrators and machine builders working in electronics, automotive, metalworking production and consumer goods industries. For example, to provide level information on spools, coils & winding machines, double layer detection in sheet metal production or paper processing, or component checks in PCB processing.

The SICK OD2000 is ready to use out-of-the-box with widely-useable default settings. The on-sensor OLED display makes parameterisation and adjustment quick and easy. Alternatively, set up via SICK’s SOPAS software has been enhanced with a new graphical user interface and a QUICK SET menu. Together with direct parameterisation via IO-Link, this is especially useful when mounting in hard-to-reach locations. Using IOLink to access existing data also makes it easy to replace a sensor, should this be necessary, reducing machine downtime and preventing incorrect settings.

Seamless integration versatility underlines the SICK OD2000’s allround usefulness. The OD2000 can send both adjustable analog output (mA/V) and digital output signals.

Smart point-to-point communication for Industry 4.0 integrations is enabled via the IO-Link interface, which also means the signal transmission and power supply can use a single cable. With IO-Link, the OD2000 can output process and diagnostic data for condition monitoring and predictive maintenance.

“With the OD2000, SICK has introduced a brand new displacement measurement family that can be relied on by production teams to assure precision performance and consistent process quality, whatever the application,” concludes David Hannaby, SICK’s UK Product Manager for Presence Detection.

“The universal concept will help to minimise inventories and ensure efficient ordering and delivery. The OD2000 is mounted in an instant and set up is completed in next to no time. Machine builders will particularly welcome the OD2000’s integration flexibility and communications versatility.”

For more information, please contact Andrea Hornby on 01727 831121 or email andrea.hornby@sick.co.uk. www.sick.co.uk

How can my business reduce its carbon emissions?

As businesses step up on meeting ESG targets and cutting carbon emissions, we’re seeing an increase in clients asking for help to meet their sustainability goals. When scrutinising the entire supply chain, many manufacturers are finding that changing the chemicals in their cleaning processes can significantly reduce carbon footprint.

Historically, cleaning solvents were notorious for having very high global warming potential (GWP) and had seriously detrimental effects on the atmosphere but the new generation of solvents have been developed specifically with the environment in mind, and are far less harmful than comparable solutions.

Fraser Technologies, who have been supplying precision cleaning solutions for over 50 years, are committed to minimising negative impact on the environment and ensuring we offer the most advanced and sustainable products on the market. One such product is Opteon™ SF80 from Chemours. SF80 has an ultralow GWP of less than 2.5 and is just as effective as competitor products that have a GWP of up to 11,000, so changing can have a huge impact on helping to lower carbon emissions, and it can improve the cleaning process and save money in the process.

One of our customers, a leading aerospace manufacturer, was looking for an alternative to the high-GWP solvent they were using. They switched to SF80, reducing their overall usage of solvent by 28%. This saved them around £30,000 per year, and dramatically reduced their carbon emissions. Previously, their GWP of their previous product was 990 – so the CO2 emissions being created were equivalent to driving around the world 143 times. After switching to SF80, the new emissions were around the same as driving from Edinburgh to Moscow.

To know more about whether your organisation can reduce the carbon impact of its cleaning process, please contact one of our team. We can look at your existing set up and suggest efficiencies, and if superior solvents can be used. It could be one of the easiest ways to help meet your company’s sustainability targets.

For more information click here sales@frasertech.co.uk

Be Inspired by Innovation at Advanced Engineering

Book your stand today to avoid disappointment

The13th edition of Advanced Engineering will celebrate innovation, development and growth within the UK’s manufacturing industry. There will be seven show zones this year — aerospace, composites, automotive, advanced metals, connected manufacturing, space and satellite and a new product testing and quality control zone. In the space and satellite zone, the ExoMars Rover, Bruno will return following huge interest at the 2021 exhibition.

18/02/2022 06:30:08

The UK’s largest gathering of OEMs and engineering and manufacturing supply chain professionals, Advanced Engineering, will return to the NEC, Birmingham on November 2 and 3, 2022. The event is shaping up to be a huge success, with 80 per cent of exhibitor space already sold. Last year saw over 7,000 people attend across the two days, including representatives from Airbus, Jaguar Land Rover, Alpine F1, Ford, BAE Systems, RollsRoyce, and the Ministry of Defence.

“Our industry is always innovating and releasing new technologies that are even more impressive when you see them in person. Take Advanced Engineering’s Enabling Innovation competition as an example — inperson events give start-ups like those involved in this the chance to showcase their ground-breaking products to the rest of the engineering community.”

This year, Advanced Engineering will once again be colocated with sister show, Lab Innovations, giving visitors and exhibitors more opportunities to collaborate across sectors. It is also offering more networking opportunities with a new composites networking area and drinks reception, which will be sponsored by PRF Composites.

“Over the last two years, our whole industry has learned the value of in-person interaction, both personally and professionally,” explained Alison Willis, Director at Easyfairs, the organiser of Advanced Engineering and Lab Innovations. “At last year’s event, we found that more visitors and exhibitors were attending with a purpose — whether that was to connect with a new supplier or purchase a particular piece of equipment. AE Connect, our digital platform that helps exhibitors and visitors connect and arrange meetings in advance of the show, really helped facilitate this.”

In 2022, Advanced Engineering’s smart badge system will return, meaning that attendees scan a personalised badge to receive digital literature and exchange virtual business cards with suppliers. As well as reducing the amount of paper being used, the smart badge technology also helps decrease the spread of COVID-19.

Over 75 per cent of last year’s exhibitors rebooked for 2022, including Qimtek, a business that helps industry buyers and designers find new subcontract manufacturing partners. At the exhibition, marketing manager, Dean Munkley said, “The show’s been really good — far busier than I expected. We’ve probably taken more leads than we have at any show over the last three years. There was a lovely mix of people and it was great speaking to anyone from students to directors. There’s such a good variety of suppliers here too — we’ll definitely be returning.”

Exhibitor space is selling out fast. To book your stand, visit www.advancedengineeringuk.com and make an enquiry. Alternatively, you can contact our Head of Sales, Ali Farr on +44 (0)20 3196 4244.

An absolutely outstanding event! We’ve met many great people who we will be looking to work with in the future, and overall it has been a very successful couple of days.

Matt Travis, Engineering Manager, JCB

Case Study: Fruit shake producer finds a new level of smoothness with MRPeasy

About Foga Shakes

Foga Shakes is a UK based instant smoothie blends producer, founded by husband-and-wife Phoebe and Ollie Thirlwell-Pearce in 2019. The operation started out on their kitchen table where the first smoothie blend recipes were born and produced. Today, Foga Shakes has more than 20 different blends available along with a branded blender system. The company operates from a small manufacturing site in Cambridge and has 7 full-time employees.

Need for traceability led to MRP software

As the company gained a market foothold, production capacity started rapidly increasing. With this, production planning as well as stock management became much more complex. They initially used multiple spreadsheets but quickly found limits in this approach in keeping tabs on the growing complexity of the manufacturing process. Foga Shakes thus set out to find a software solution that would set the growing operation on steady tracks.

Next to the increasing volume of production, the primary reason for

implementing an MRP system came from a need for end-to-end traceability. Twoway traceability is a key requirement in the food sector, helping to increase customer satisfaction and safety, stay in accordance with manufacturing standards and best practices, and more. Other reasons to commit to an MRP system included a need to more easily and accurately forecast stock requirements as well as to automatically keep track of batch numbers. With everything to gain, Ollie began the search for the right software companion.

MRPeasy proved to be the perfect companion

Since the owners had no prior experience with MRP software, their first move was to get acquainted with the many available providers by simply googling them. After identifying a few candidates, Ollie spent a while running a few trials and finally opted for MRPeasy. The key selling point was the software’s diverse capacity for integrations. Foga Shakes’s website uses WooCommerce and the company has Shipstation running their fulfilment platform – both fully compatible with MRPeasy. The software’s capability to easily run requirements forecasts seemed

attractive as well, and the owners also really liked the name and branding of the software.

Today, Foga Shakes is using more and more of MRPeasy’s capabilities and further integrating it with the production process. The software helps identify what needs to happen to maximise efficiency. Ollie Thirlwell-Pearce explained “It has given us much more efficient planning, forecasting and workflow for sure. As with any system, it is as good as the data you give it. There is still stuff to iron out, largely on our side, but MRPeasy has definitely given us a smoother and easier process from forecasting through to production.”

With MRPeasy, Foga Shakes has a firm handle on managing the manufacturing process, allowing the firm to focus more on sourcing and new product development for their growing clientele.

MRPeasy is a simple yet powerful ERP/ MRP system for small manufacturers and distributors. More information and a trial version are available at www.mrpeasy.com

Control module for heated & cooled flow chemistry applications

The Uniqsis Polar Bear Plus Flow™ is a compact, state of the art temperature control module, that can be used as a standalone unit or integrated with a flow reactor, for both heated and cooled flow chemistry applications.

Polar Bear Plus Flow™ temperature control module integrated with a FlowSyn system

Standalone Polar Bear Plus Flow™ temperature control module

Utilising

highly efficient, compressor-based cooling and heating technology the Polar Bear Plus Flow™ can precisely and reliably maintain reactor temperatures anywhere between -40 ⁰ C and +150 ⁰ C. The module is easy to use and is completely self-contained, requiring only an electricity supply for operation - no more need for solvents, refrigerants, or messy heat transfer fluids.

The Polar Bear Plus Flow™ can also be integrated with a FlowSyn™ flow chemistry system or used as a heating/cooling unit as part of a FlowLab or FlowLab Plus modular flow chemistry system.

To achieve high reproducibility and facilitate reaction scale-up, precise control of mixing and temperature is essential. This is particularly important for highly exothermic or fast, mixing-dependent reactions. The Polar Bear Plus Flow™ is fully compatible with Uniqsis glass static mixer (GSM) reactor chips that ensure an efficient, turbulent mixed reagent stream that is not diffusion dependent. Uniqsis provide an adapter which fits to the top of the Polar Bear Plus Flow allowing a range of smaller volume GSM’s to be used in the adapter.

For further information on the Polar Bear Plus Flow™ temperature control module visit

www.uniqsis.com/paProductsDetail.aspx?ID=Polar%20 Bear%20Plus%20Flow or contact Uniqsis on +44-845-864-7747/ info@uniqsis.com.

moneo – simply made for you!

Software to assist your industrial evolution - Nothing more. Nothing less.

One platform for all digitization requirements

Experience the ease of IT-supported process optimization with moneo moneo is the all-in-one platform for everyone who wants to interact with their system in a predictive manner, evaluate information and adjust parameters. All in one software. Take the next step in digitization. Without detours, without technical hurdles, very simple and straightforward. Are you ready for industrial evolution? It's already happening, with moneo.

moneo | configure SA (SA: Stand-Alone) supports you with the parameterization of your IO-Link devices and ifm IO-Link masters. The visualized representation in the cockpit simplifies setup and error diagnosis. The simple management of parameter data sets accelerates the integration of new sensors and is supplemented by the integrated online connection to the IODD finder.

moneo.ifm Ready for more? Then start your digital evolution now with moneo, the new, open and industry-independent IIoT platform from ifm.

Could automation be the answer to the Great Resignation?

Regardless of location, if you are a manager in manufacturing, you will have seen the increasingly staggering data about the so-called Great Resignation, a phenomenon where employees voluntarily decide to quit their jobs. Neil Ballinger, head of EMEA at global supplier of quality automation components EU Automation, explores how automation can help manufacturing businesses cope as staff retention rates fall.

The Great Resignation, a term coined by Anthony Klotz, a professor at Texas A&M University, is a growing economic trend in which employees have been voluntarily resigning from their jobs en masse since early 2021. Wage stagnation in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis, job dissatisfaction and safety concerns due to COVID-19 are all contributing factors as to why staff resignation levels are persistently on the rise across the globe. So, what does this mean for the manufacturing industry?

According to the Harvard Business Review, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, employees are now self-evaluating, significantly reconsidering their career paths and prospects. Humans are creatures of habit, but the pandemic has caused a shift in both perspective and work-life balance for manufacturing staff.

In Germany, the main factor triggering this shift in the workforce was inflation. Price hikes across food and energy products meant that in 2021, Germany saw inflation rates of 4.1 per cent in September 2021 — the highest in nearly 30 years, causing employees to seek higher-paid jobs with benefits such as working from home.

What’s more, in manufacturing there are few options for remote work compared to other sectors. The Washington Post reports that manufacturing workers fear a new COVID-19 outbreak feel that their safety is not sufficiently protected. Other reasons for why staff retention has plummeted are the stagnation in pay rates, especially in manufacturing that involves ‘nondurable goods’, and harsh working conditions.

Leveraging automation

Job functions within the manufacturing industry often involve constant repetitive actions that might be monotonous and even lead to strain injuries. Leveraging automation systems across production lines to automate repetitive actions will reduce the chance of human error and increase levels of accuracy, but also allow employees to move into more fulfilling job roles, increasing job satisfaction. This might reduce the levels of staff resignation and increase productivity.

Pick and place robots are just one example of how manufacturers can leverage automation for increased efficiency. Using

advanced vision systems, these robots can identify, pick up and move objects from one place to another and can be configured with a myriad of end-of-arm tools, thus making the robot useful for an array of tasks. Automating repetitive processes such as this can help increase levels of production, allowing workers to focus on more complex and rewarding work.

Automating the quality assurance function of the manufacturing process can also assist managers with harnessing automation effectively. The process of quality assurance can become a tedious task for workers over time and inspectors can make mistakes due to the complex nature of the item they are inspecting, whose quality is best assessed by an automated solution. Replacing manual inspection with an autonomous machine vision solution will lead to higher inspection accuracy, while workers can be moved to tasks that require reasoning and decision-making. Navigating the automation industry and sourcing new parts for these manufacturing functions can be a costly process but sourcing your parts from a supplier of reconditioned and obsolete parts could be the solution.

Crucially, manufacturers should not hesitate to deploy new automated solutions for fear that breakages will lead to increase maintenance costs and more downtime. Liaising with a supplier such as EU Automation will allow managers to access parts easily and affordably, so that repairs can be made quickly and stress-free. While the Great Resignation movement continues, the manufacturing industry should accelerate the adoption of new technology to optimise productivity while moving their current employees into more rewarding, fulfilling jobs. Managers must see that automation is not just another expense but an asset to be valued.

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GRAPHITE RUPTURE DISC GRX WITH PYC COATING FOR EXTRA-HIGH TEMPERATURE RESISTANCE

The GRX is available with a Pyro-Carbon (PyC) coating, developed specifically for the GRX. By the PyC coating, the rupture disc resists significantly higher temperatures, while remaining permanently leak-tight. Other Graphite rupture discs with a coating made of PTFE or impregnation of synthetic resin are not able to offer this leak-tightness at temperatures above 180 °C. With an operating pressure ratio of up to 80 % and burst tolerances of +/- 10 %, the GRX is usable for rupture pressures from 0.05 bar. Optionally, a vacuum or back pressure support can be integrated, which is installed without adhesive (which melts at very high temperatures). The GRX is also available with a burst indicator, upon request. The installation occurs directly between the flanges or other clamp systems. So far, the GRX has already been installed in various reactors, tanks, glass containers and other system parts in the chemical, petrochemical and pharmaceutical industry.

This rupture disc has been developed for processes with corrosive media, low and medium pressure and temperatures of between -180 °C and 1,500 °C.

Graphite rupture disc GRX with vacuum support

Kardex Compact Buffer

The new affordable Mini-Load

Larger organisations are creating efficient supplier networks that leverage digitalisation and automation to connect data and operations seamlessly along their supply chains and shed light on any areas of risk. Lower-tier firms also need to adopt digitalisation and automation to keep pace with their customers.

Today’s markets need affordable optimisation and systems that adapt with changing business needs. What makes the Kardex Compact buffer a (Vertical Buffer Module) work differently from traditional carousels and lift systems commonly associated with Kardex, is that this is designed with a Miniload crane. This design is commonly used in Mini-load systems, and Kardex designed this to be affordable for smaller companies. The crane has a lightweight construction to enable the power of high energy efficiency and moves stock via a rotating gripper with a telescopic load handling device which moves the bins/ trays.

Optimising order picking performance of small parts and lightweight goods was key in the design whilst guaranteeing accuracy and energy efficiency, essential in today’s limited global resources. Whether being used to supply a production line with a wide range of products, such as buffer storage in the assembly area; or for picking slow-moving parts in the distribution warehouse, the Kardex Compact Buffer significantly improves productivity.

Another difference is in the goods to person which delivers an opening that tilts at a 20-degree angle while the goods-to-person principle delivers items directly to the operator, eliminating walk and search time. This ergonomic picking station simplifies the picking process and improves overall working conditions. There are choices on access openings as a station can consist of one or more units and easily integrates into existing processes and connects to different customer host-systems.

Application wise the Kardex Compact Buffer works best for fast order picking, especially useful for a 24-hour service and overnight delivery of goods such as spare parts. Order consolidation for fast accurate order management before shipping or packing and assembly kitting. Also, assembly kitting combines

order picking and buffering into one system delivering a ‘just-in-time’ conveyed stock directly to the assembly workstations with throughput increased by up to 200%.

‘Since the Kardex Compact Buffer was installed and our processes streamlined, our staff are working under less pressure and able to focus more on accuracy. They no longer need to remember so much information regarding all the products when it comes to picking. They just need to follow the instructions provided by the optical indicators.’ Georgy Paul, Inventory Manager, Church Pharmacy

The Kardex Compact Buffer can be purchased as either a stand-alone solution or integrated into an overall logistics concept. By adding further enhancements or combining it with other technologies, users benefit from higher performance results and see improvements in throughput and accuracy. Further options and storage environments with air conditioning, fire protection or ESD versions are available.

To learn more about how the Kardex Vertical Buffer Module can benefit your business click here and down load the Fact sheet. Or contact Kardex at info.remstar.uk@Kardex.com