The added-value of automated material handling systems

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Fig_02-3-460x353Integrated logistics represents for companies a fundamental competitiveness element, achieved by Cassioli by proposing the best plant engineering and automation solutions.

Group operating on a world scale in the supply of plant engineering solutions for industrial handling and automation, Cassioli takes care of various operations for its customers: from the warehouse organization to the product handling, from packaging to reverse logistics, from the spare part management to the traceability of goods. A specialization that has made the company a reality known to big multinationals operating in various commercial sectors, which for over thirty years have turned to the Siena Group with the target of improving the efficiency of their production and distribution systems.

Products and services for integrated logistic solutions inside of which automatic material handling systems play an essential and determinant role. Among them, for instance, the standard automated system that generally operates on fixed paths. It is the well-known powered conveyor that still finds numerous applications in various contexts. These systems are configured by Cassioli according to customers’ needs with continuous or discontinuous lines and with manual and automated working bays.

When, however, material flows increase and the operational conditions allow it, it is necessary to turn to other technological solutions, like for instance the self-powered trolley on rail: in this case the mobile unit performs a “shuttle” service for the bidirectional connection of adjacent stations to the same transport line.

The bidirectional trolley as well can feature an insufficient handling capacity to manage material flows of a certain consistency. An alternative is then represented by systems composed by more mobile self-propelled units moving on the same closed loop.

Self-propelled systems that stand out for their high degree of operational flexibility, with the advantage of installing the rail in elevated position. Compared to a conventional solution, the system with more independent shuttles allows a selective not programmed management of the load units.

The possibility of executing different paths in real time, depending on the specificities of the single load or on the status of a workstation, allows the plant to pursue automatically the best distribution of material flows. The company proposes for the market also handling systems that do not provide for fixed installations on the floor, AGV trolleys, automated systems for handling load units in determinate industrial sectors with high automation degree, with very variable and complex material flows.

Finally, if it was necessary to store goods with a high picking frequency or some allocations, it is indispensable to turn to an intensive warehouse, whose adoption with automatic stacker cranes for the storing or the buffering of load units mainly depends on a convenience of economic type as well as on an increment of the service level offered.