The air conditioning systems for the Toyota Aygo, Peugeot 108 and Citroën C1 models move from one production line to the next at Czech car manufacturer TPCA as if on an assembly line. However, most of the automatic transportation is purely mechanical and uses gravity - a Karakuri application.

TPCA initially used transport trolleys to bring the required air conditioning systems to the production line. However, the transport trolleys crossed the routes of the tugger trains, which meant they had to stop frequently. This interrupted the material flow and made processes inefficient. In search of an economical solution with optimized processes and higher productivity, TPCA turned to Item, a supplier of modular systems for industrial applications. The company has many years of experience in Karakuri/LCA applications and worked with TPCA to develop a customized solution based on the lean production system kit.

The air conditioning units are now transported via a six-metre-long, six-metre-wide and five-metre-high Karakuri bridge. The material is fed in via a shooter. The air conditioning units move upwards one after the other on small load carriers (SLC) via a linear axis in a tower and are transported to the other side on roller conveyors across the track. After a 90 degree change of direction and a further transport distance of three meters, the air conditioning units reach a second tower. There they are transported downwards again purely mechanically and can be removed for further processing. The empty KLTs move to a third tower, where a linear unit transports them upwards. They are first stacked before roller conveyors transport the stacks of four back along the track. After the downward movement in the fourth and final tower, the stacked KLTs can be removed and loaded again. The entire construction consists of the linear technology as well as the D30 profile tube system and suitable connection technology from Item. pb