Delft University of Technology
Faculty Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering Transport Technology
T. Arsiwalla Next generation packaging line - automated materials supply. Masters thesis, Report 99.3.TT.5211, Transport Engineering and Logistics.
Heineken is developing the so-called 'Next Generation Line' (NGL); a flexible production line with low operational cost.
Some new machines will be installed and the production capacity will be reduced four times, compared to conventional lines. The manning level however, should be reduced eight times (chapter 1).
In the ideal case only one operator operates the NGL. This means that some of the common operator-tasks should be eliminated; the operator should mainly act as a trouble-shooter instead of actually supplying and removing materials to and from the machines.
The study in this report first determines which further developments (besides the new machines) are required to obtain an NGL as described above (chapter 2).
The most important further development, which is to fully automate the cartons supply to the machines, is then discussed into detail.
A robot should unpack the pallets with cartons at a central location. From there, a transport system brings the unpacked cartons to the desired machines. The cartons are then transferred from the transportsystem onto the machines' feed-stations (chapter 3).
Three unmanned transport systems are examined: the Automated Guided Vehicle, the Automated Electric Monorail and the Power and Free conveyor (chapters 4 to 6). Based on both a technical- and a cost assessment, the Power and Free conveyor has turned out to be the most suitable transport system (chapter 7).
Finally, design details are shown on some dedicated modules that are used in the automated cartons supply with a Power and Free conveyor. Reports on Transport Engineering and Logistics (in Dutch)
