Supply of a snoxCart AGV for SAGEM/CDO’s Dinan site

CUSTOMER PROBLEM

General

SAGEM is looking for a way of linking two workshops at its Dinan site.

Customer goals

• Linking the raw materials workshop with the manufacturing workshop (handling at the side of the production line)
• Taking the raw materials to the various machines.
  Removing finished products from these machines.

A manual solution by each operator is in place, with these handling operations being "added" to their contractual allocations.
SAGEM therefore wishes to find a solution that can free up as much time as possible for these operators, make the raw materials supply consistent and streamline the return of finished products.

Specific project features

Operation of equipment: 24 hours/day, 7 days/week, 50 weeks/year.
Several delivery locations in the finished product workshop.
Automatic despatch to the required destination station.
Minimum human intervention in handling convoys and opening doors.
Conveyance of a maximum load of 1.2 tonnes on a 5% slope.
Total distance conveyed per day: 24 km.
Number of pick-ups/put-downs: 207 days spread over four product categories.
System flexibility frequent and rapid modifications.
Lower maintenance cost and outlay.

SNOX SOLUTION

Taking into account the miscellaneous aspects of handling problems at the side of the SAGEM production lines, our specialist team proposed the snoxCart AGV solution ,as the best compromise between technical autonomy and outlay.

The tractor type AGV pulls standard commercial pallet trucks (fitted with a spring lever arm). The pallet trucks are coupled manually by an operator at the departure station.
The AGV is fitted with a RFID card reader so that it can be sent to a specific delivery programme. Eight RFID cards corresponding to eight possible circuits were supplied to the customer.
Once they arrive in the destination station the pallet trucks are uncoupled automatically, therefore enabling the AGV to release its load and be available to operators (frees up more operator time and streamlines inter-workshop flows).
In the same spirit of autonomy, two doors are negotiated automatically: the AGV commands a remote control which activates door opening without human intervention.

To make these systems as flexible as possible (modifications, addition of a stopping station, addition of a complete circuit), the selected guidance method is optical guidance on an adhesive optical band. Combined with the use of passive RFID antennae for performing station stops, switching and acceleration of AGVs, etc., and linked to the SNOX_Traffic_LE programming software, the customer is completely free to make any modifications whatsoever.

The AGV speed is fully adjustable and can be modified over time. This feature gives the customer the option to adapt the speed to his production.

Finally, the AGV has been designed to be capable of pulling 1.2 tonnes on a 5% slope: sizing of motors and brakes, installation of an external variable speed drive, size and weight of batteries for power and driveability

You can also view the video of this project on the snox Cart page.

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