Resume

The goal of this project is to create a strong partnership for a good collaboration between universities and industrial companies from Romania and Slovakia for giving solutions to problems identified in priority domains – adaptive manufacturing technologies and new manufacturing methods, components and systems.

The practical relevance results from the specific objective of the present project which is focused on the development of a transportation modular system conveyor type that can be used in various fields of activity, and can be adapted according to the needs of each user in order to create conditions of optimization in a manufacturing environment.

Within this project will be done a series of research, design and manufacturing activities which support the achievement goals.

A conveyor is a device that provides transport of an object from one place to another. These systems have proved their efficiency in transporting large quantities of products in a short time from one place to another, which was an incentive for engineers to carry out research on their development.

Over time they have been continuously improved and the use of materials with high wear resistance endowment with equipment with automatic control has opened the way to powerful and impressive transport systems

In countries with strong industry there are companies engaged in improving and development of new conveyor systems.

Within the main characteristics of the conveyor, the present project has proposed to improve most of them in order to get a system which will fit on the necessities of any user from industry. In this way will be also assure an optimum repartition of the hall surface and will have the advantage of being possible to be mounted both on the floor and on the structure of the industrial hall.

The final product of the project, the monorail conveyor system for automated production lines, contains mechanical, electrical, pneumatic and automation parts.

The operating clamp elements are equipped with hanging hooks controlled by a follower, which is commanded from a mobile cam mounted in the loading, unloading and stationary stations of the conveyor, and driven by an actuator receiving command from PLC control equipment.

The conveyor will have sensors to indicate the presence of different types of pieces, their number and the command system will sort the pieces according to their configuration to established unloading stations. The entire equipment will supply an automatic transport, easily to adapt by sensors and PLC software to each kind of production lines in automotive companies, but also for other industrial fields.

The conveyor will assure low noise and will supply horizontal and vertical lines to adapt in different industrial halls and will give an automatic control of the transported products, besides the possibility of manual control. The transport speed will be adjustable according to the products and the fixture devices will be projected on specific necessities.

In order to get a high quality conveyor, the manufacturing technology will take the advantage of performing CAM/CNC after the CAD/CAE procedures have been applied at design phase.

Companies face the problem on having to transport a lot of pieces during production and an easy system for transport will facilitate to move from one production step to another. The conveyor will assure a proper flexibility in transport within the industrial halls and will reduce significantly the timing for adjusting any new configuration of the products. The proposed conveyor will be a solution for industrial halls where any space must be harnessed in order to have the equipments grouped in a smaller area, but, in the same time, the ergonomic design will allow a decrease of accident risks. This monorail conveyor system is an innovative product, that can work both in manual mode and in completely automatic mode on robotized lines. This means that it would be very beneficial for industrial companies producing assembly lines for automotive.

In countries with strong industry there are companies that have main field of activity the production of conveyors. The theme proposed in this project fits into the goals of research and manufacturing alignment of partner countries in the European trend.

The project develops a conveyor system which has some features in order to provide as much flexibility and reduce times to adapt to a new product configuration. The idea of developing this system came as a result of requests from some companies.

Proposed monorail conveyor system for automated production lines is designed for use in companies that produce automotive assembly lines, but it can be used in other fields such as aeronautics industry, agro - food industry, textiles industry etc.