In this case study we will show you how GUDEL, one of the world's leading suppliers of automation, linear and drive technologies; used workflow management software, Visual Components to plan and design an automated solution for sorting, storing and palletizing tires from production to shipping.
Key benefits:
- Significantly reduced time on planning and design
- Increased customer confidence in the intended system
An industrial-scale problem
Imagine that as a tire supplier you had to deliver 12,000 tires per day to a car manufacturer, just on time and in sequence – in the exact order in which the cars are assembled on the assembly line and in the manner which their customers have ordered – and with many different types of tires. This is a technical and operational challenge that requires a well-organized intermediate storage facility and sophisticated logistics to manage.
A solution defined by technology
The solution that Güdel designed for this customer project was impressive, both in its technology and its size. It included a massive ASRS gantry robotic system that could sort, store and organize a random supply of tires and retrieve complete sets of tires for delivery . After production, tires arrive in random order via infeed conveyor technology to a barcode reader that reads the tire's barcode and sends it to the material flow computer. This decides which buffer the tire should go to. The gantry bridge loaded with the buffer then removes the tire and a gripper which moves through the storage area on linear axes and gantries places it on an existing stack of the same type or forms a new stack.
For stability reasons, the height of the pile is limited to a maximum of 1.6 meters. In the buffer, which can accommodate up to 8,000 tires, one type of tire is temporarily stored until there are enough tires to fill a full range for transport. As soon as a complete set of tires is completed, the stack is gripped by a gripper and transported to a palletizing unit. In order to achieve the required high throughput of 12,000 tires per day, several grippers are used on several gantry bridges. These grippers move at speeds of up to 3.5 meters/second on the Y axis and accelerations of up to 5 meters/sec² on the Z axis.
Although many standard components from Güdel are used in such systems, this is always a customer-specific task, because the size of the hall, the dimensions and weight of the goods to be palletized and the throughput requirements are to be determined. each time different. Complexity and high requirements for reliability and throughput make it necessary to use a powerful solution for factory planning and simulation. With Visual Components workflow management software , Güdel has found an ideal system with which they can design, simulate and validate their production solutions.
Transform a 2D drawing into a 3D simulation model with workflow management software, Visual Components
The starting point for planning such a system is usually a 2D drawing that has been coordinated with the customer. The 2D drawing is imported into Visual Components to provide a reference point for the layout, and the system's 3D layout is designed and configured using components from the Component Library. When designing this system, Güdel used the extensive library of components available in the Visual Components electronic catalog ; as well as the many components they created for their own user-defined library (Güdel Smart Components such as linear axes, portals and robots). Since the movement paths of bridges are very dynamic in such projects, the simulation logic is mapped with Python. Güdel has developed its own Python library for this purpose, adapted to the “Sorting and palletizing” division. Thanks to all these libraries, planning and design times for such systems can be significantly reduced.
Jonathan Camenzind from the “Software Technologies” department of Güdel AG, together with his colleagues, takes care of the software for complete systems, including the programming of material flow computers and warehouse management systems. For this project, the part of the system that fell within Güdel's area of responsibility was fully mapped with Visual Components . In this way, the system could be designed virtually to specification, statistics could be collected, and potential performance problems in the system could be discovered and eliminated at an early stage.
“I spend a lot of my working time creating 3D simulations with Visual Components. With the help of Visual Components, we created a detailed simulation for this project. This allowed us to accurately analyze cycle times, gate utilization, and buffer utilization in various scenarios. »
Verify that the system meets customer requirements
How can Güdel ensure that the system provides the service requested by the customer? This is exactly where Camenzind sees one of the main advantages of the flow management software, Visual Components: “ Through the evaluation of cycle times and the use of gantry bridges, we were able to ensure that the system meets customer requirements in terms of throughput . The simulation also showed that the number of buffer spaces is sufficient.
Another important benefit that Güdel has realized with the use of workflow management software, Visual Components is time saving . “Thanks to Visual Components' libraries and Güdel's additions, development times for such projects are only a fraction of the time required previously,” says Camenzind.
“Using the intelligent components of the Visual Components software, for example, I can easily visually connect bearings, bridges, inputs and outputs. I only spent about a hundred hours on the first version of the complete system, including programming the material flow calculators. For other scenarios, around 80 hours were added in the following weeks. »
Use simulation to win new projects
The customer was also impressed with the solution.
“The simulation with Visual Components was perceived very positively by our client. It increases the customer's trust in the system builder when they can see a sophisticated simulation of the intended system. And it certainly also helps to win orders and lay the foundation for further success in the future. »
If you would like to see a similar Güdel system in operation, this video shows a complete wheel storage and sorting system:
About the Güdel Group
The Güdel Group is one of the world's leading suppliers of automation , linear and drive , with headquarters in Langenthal, Switzerland. The Güdel Group has been a family business since its creation in 1954 and employs around 1,200 people worldwide at more than 30 locations. Their product range extends from linear guides, racks, pinions and gears to linear axes and gantry robots. In addition to a wide range of automation components, Güdel also offers complete systems, such as the production of components for prefabricated houses, food palletizing, storage, sorting and preparation of products of all kinds.
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