The MOB242306 can even be moved on its four heavy-duty rollers to provide enough space for servicing the sintering oven or changing the chain belt. It should be noted that the system weighs 2.5 tons with a footprint of ten square meters. A pan was firmly anchored to the floor so that it can find its way back to its starting position. The four cones attached to the work cell fit exactly into the corresponding openings.

The indexable inserts are delivered on 400 x 300 millimeter ceramic plates. For this purpose, a 1.20 meter high supply trolley is loaded with 40 ceramic inserts, which are always placed next to each other in pairs. Each ceramic plate is loaded with 48 indexable inserts measuring ten by 20 millimetres. The cycle time per ceramic plate provided is ten seconds. After delivery, the worker first scans the batch and material numbers from the production order. He then pushes two transport trolleys into the work cell. They are centered and lifted so that the three-axis gantry can safely remove the ceramic plates and place them on the staging area. A motor drives a ball screw for this purpose.

The Kuka KR10R1100 six-axis robot picks up two ceramic plates at a time with its vacuum double gripper to transport them to the transfer table and place them next to each other. To do this, it works its way up the transport carriage from bottom to top. Six capacitive sensors in the removal gripper check whether the robot has actually picked up all the ceramic plates.

On the transfer table, each panel is fitted with four spacer sleeves, which are fed in via a vibratory conveyor. They are fed to the robot via a hose and placed on the ceramic plates. For fast feeding, the hopper was positioned close to the robot at a height of 1.60 meters. A concave mirror above the hopper shows the worker when he needs to refill.

The spacer sleeves are 20 millimetres long and have a diameter of 15 millimetres, which is also checked. They ensure that there is sufficient space between the ceramic plates, four of which are always stacked on top of each other. If the spacer sleeves are too short or too long, they are automatically sorted out. Finally, a ceramic cover is placed on top of both stacks. The robot removes this empty plate from a drawer with a telescopic pull-out, which is regularly refilled by the worker. Once both transfer tables are fully loaded, which is the case every 80 seconds, they are automatically transported out of the system and over the chain conveyor of the oven. The transfer table now lowers to place both ceramic stacks on the accumulation conveyor chain. Here too, sensors check whether all the ceramic plates have been positioned correctly.

The chain belt of the system runs synchronously with the downstream oven belt, which is equipped with a rotary encoder. This measures the rotational movement, which it transmits to the system. If both belts run at the same speed, this ensures that the stacks do not slip. Two linear encoders check the width of the oven belt, the metal of which can shorten over time due to the heat. If the width falls below the limit value, the belt must be replaced.

The work cell is controlled by a Siemens S7-1500F. This PLC controller and the power electronics, which consist of the robot controller and six controllers for the servo axes, were housed in a centrally arranged control cabinet. The 15-inch touch display can be conveniently moved around the entire system on a crane arm, as its point of rotation is in the center of the cell roof.

Remote maintenance is possible via a secure internet connection. A key switch has been integrated for security. A technician is only authorized to access the system once this has been switched. as