Automation of material flow to the production line

Protech company has been involved in comprehensive metalworking industry for many years. The services provided by the company are cutting, bending, welding, machining, shot blasting, varnishing and assembling. Due to the dynamic development of the company and the new challenges related to increasing the scale of activity, the company built a new production hall and expanded the existing machinery park with new equipment automating the various stages of the processes.

At Protech company, we have been implementing our systems for years, which are responsible for the automation of individual processes on the company’s production. In 2022, one of the implementations was the Loader with automated storage system TwinTower, which ensures the flow of sheet metal from the automated storage working area to the Salvagnini S4 + P4 production line.

The system allows the storage of sheet metal with a maximum dimension of 3 m x 1.5 m and thicknesses from 0.8 mm to 20 mm. The material in the TwinTower is stored on 61 shelves with a maximum load capacity of 3,000 kg, giving a total load capacity of 183,000 kg. The automated storage system was ideally adapted to the capacity of the production hall – its height of 7.9 m makes full use of the hall’s usable space. The automated storage system was additionally equipped with a loading and unloading station that moves along the long side of the shelf.

The metal sheet is transported from the area of the storage column and goes directly to the next part of the transport system. Responsible for this stage of the process is the Loader system, which is equipped with special vacuum suction pads that quickly and safely transport the sheet to the next production phase.

Efficient and intuitive operation of the system is ensured by Smart WMS Standard software. Control is possible from the control panel, which is responsible for operating both the storage system and transporting the sheets to the processing area.

Our system has significantly improved the sheet metal process, fully automating it. It has allowed to speed up production and increase safety in the production hall.