Clever Chaueur

Turck is supplying Movexx with most of the automation required for an

automated guided vehicle, including the programming of the Codesys

controller on the HMI VT250

ally even today. The machines mainly do not have

the required intelligence to make the right decision

on their own.

The truck and automotive supplier VDL Weweler

A look at the operating steps taken over by the

industrialization and automation of machinery will

show that in the industrial revolution these were

primarily operating steps requiring physical effort,

which could be handled by steam engines. With the

onset of automation (third industrial revolution), it was

then increasingly easier but monotonous tasks that

were passed on to robots and other machines, such as

welding, screwing or turning. Tasks that involve a

degree of flexibility are mostly still completed manu-

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truck trailers. The production area at its headquarters

is mostly automated. The reliability and just-in-time

availability required in the utility vehicle sector would

otherwise be unachievable. Production runs 24 hours a

day five days a week.

The responsible production planners saw the need

for optimization in the transport of support elements

and suspensions for truck trailers. Up to the middle of

2015, these components were still being transported

between the basic production area and the paint line

conveyor belt that takes them to the paint line. A

suspension element weighs 35 kilos and a frame holds

36 of them. A fully laden lift truck including frame thus

weighs almost two tons on the scales.

Manual transport unprecise

The disadvantage of this solution was the fact that it

required a lot of physical effort from the employees:

Furthermore, colleagues could not always work as

precisely as an automated vehicle – with a weight of

two tons on the lift truck hardly surprising. The stands

therefore decided to automate the transport of the

frames. As well as the pick-up stations (A and B) at the

basic production area two offtake stations (C and D)

are located at the paint line. The required transport

system cannot be controlled according a fixed cycle.

Sometimes a frame has to go from A to D, and some-

times an empty frame has to go from C to A and so on.

“The transport solution for us had to be as flexible as

possible,” says Bert Eilander, shift manager in the

production area at VDL Weweler.

had already developed and built so-called AGVs

(automated guided vehicles). However, a new solution

had to be developed for this task.

“Several features of the AGV were new: The bidirec-

tional driving capability, the extremely low construc-

tion for moving underneath the frames and the

hydraulic heavy load lifting platform,” explains Andreas

Versteeg, product manager for AGVs at Movexx and

responsible for the newly developed vehicle for VDL

Weweler. The AGV must move in both directions

had previously used the Turck sensors and LED lights in

its products. However, this project also required

solution expertise as well as capable components.

The greatest challenge was the bidirectional control

of the AGV on the factory floor. Turck suggested a

combined RFID contrast strip control. Three strips are

drawn on the hall floor; a white one in the middle and

a black strip on the left and right. Three fibers with

connected fiber amplifiers monitor the strips and

measure the degree of brightness. The threshold value

Dutch company VDL Weweler, an automated

guided vehicle (AGV) supplied by Movexx

transports components for suspension systems

from the basic production area to the paint line.

Turck’s HMI VT250 with a Codesys controller is

controlling how the vehicle finds its destination,

supported by photoelectric sensors, RFID system

as well as angle sensors and status indication

systems from the Turck portfolio. Turck B.V.

demonstrated its genuine solution expertise by