After components have been steam pre-cleaned, a basket is taken to the
input station from where, under program control, a transporter picks it up and moves it along the line, immersing it in each stainless steel tank successively.
To better accommodate unique handling needs, the system can be equipped with a variety of modules and functions including a manual
input station and a camera system that reads bar codes on products when they are loaded.
Theyer commented "Originally, it took two people, one behind the chariot and one in front, to manually move the chariot across a distance of 10 to 12 metres from a storage area near the flocking line, to the
input station. For exactly the same safety reasons, we decided to replace this with a SmartMover tug, which has now completely eliminated the risk of injury to the operator.
Raw parts, delivered by conveyor or tote bin, are manually stacked on a column at the
input station. Due to the holding capacity of the six columns, this manual service is infrequent and can be performed by personnel assigned to some other primary task.
If there is no back-ordered demand for the product, the lift truck driver delivers the pallet to the
input station for the unit load AS/RS 3 , where the warehouse control system chooses a putaway location and updates the WMS.
Acceptable pallets are transported to the AS/RS
input station and stored.
Now, racks are bar coded and scanned before they are moved from the stamping area to an
input station of the AS/RS for staging there.