Page 2 - Schmalz - Reducing Downtimes in the Automatic Sheet Metal Handling
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Industry 4.0 a Practical Reality


          Flexible Production of Fiber Composite Components without Set-up Times


                                                            Case Study

                                                             Application
                                                              Production line for composite components with a
                                                               gripper spider of 15 needle grippers

                                                             Handling Task
                                                              Reliable, automated handling of composite textiles
                                                              One product changeovers per day
                                                              Each product requires different needle strokes due
                                                               to different material thicknesses




          Schmalz needle gripper SNG-AE


          Schmalz Solution
           Needle gripper SNG-AE for handling non-rigid and highly porous materials
           (primary textiles)
           10 crossed needles offering high holding forces
           Needle stroke (max. 3 mm, 10 mm or 20 mm) is freely adjustable using
           definable process profiles
           Stroke can be adapted for each cycle in any order
           Handling of individual layers and stacks with a single gripper
           Continuous process monitoring (stroke and energy consumption)
           IO-Link interface for bidirectional communication with higher-level        Freely adjustable needle stroke
           field-bus systems

          Customer Benefits
           Elimination of setup and downtime during production changeovers
           No manual setting and control directly at the gripper and no test runs required
           Minimal risk of incorrect settings
           Increased flexibility of production lines (small batches)
           Error detection during operation and error correction in the planned maintenance
           (predictive maintenance)                                                                                 © Schmalz, 10/2014 | Subject to technical changes without notice  | Schmalz is a registered trademark
           Automatic reparameterization in the case of exchange of separate grippers


          Saving Potential Using the Example of a Gripper Spider for Composite Components
          The spider in this example is equipped with 15 needle grippers, a production changeover takes around 12
          minutes when using conventional needle grippers. This time includes processes, such as stopping the
          machine, reparameterizing the components and also tests that are required after the changeover. If the
          grippers are changed once a day, the approximated costs for downtime are around EUR 600 for each work-
          ing day (EUR 50/minute). If the spider is running 300 days each year, this results in approximated annual
          downtime costs of EUR 180,000 when using conventional grippers. With the needle gripper SNG-AE from
          Schmalz, set-up times and downtime for this spider can be almost completely eliminated using remote
          parameterization via IO-Link.


            Saving Potential of
             180.000 € per Year









          J. Schmalz GmbH, Aacher Strasse 29, D-72293 Glatten, Tel. +49 7443 2403-0, Fax +49 7443 2403-259, schmalz@schmalz.de, www.schmalz.com
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