Driving collision-free and positioning accurately – on the unmanned transport vehicles at schlott GmbH in Freudenstadt, S300 safety laser scanners manage the automatic traffic between the electroplating lines, the high bay warehouse for cylinders, and the printing presses.

The previous two-part solution consisting of bumpers for personnel protection and ultrasound as queuing sensor has had its day – the S300 takes on both functions more precisely and flexibly.

Transport automation for printing center

The schlott Group is one of Europe’s largest printing and direct marketing providers, covering all processes involving digital and printed communications. In a new building, schlott has built up an entirely new cylinder form production with adjacent printing presses. The contract for implementing the fully automatic equipment and plant technology went to Effing GmbH Maschinenfabrik based in Ahaus (ATG Systems), which ranks among the leading suppliers in this field. Part of the solution provided by Effing entails two unmanned transport vehicles (AGVs) used for transporting the rotogravure cylinders. In the electroplating lines of form production, these are placed on the AGVs by automatic cranes and removed as well as stored at the high-bay warehouse by the aisle stacker. Corresponding to the printing jobs pending, AGVs takes care of retrieval and transport to the printing presses, where the cylinders are removed by crane and transferred to the printing press. Since the drive path is not cordoned off and persons may be present in the facility, the people from Effing searched for a suitable personnel protection system – and decided in favor of the S300.

“Big brother” serving as a reference

Effing has fared very well in numerous projects with the S3000. However, apart from this positive reference, use of the S300, the “little brother,” in the advanced version was above all a matter of suitable functional features: 2-meter and 8-meter ranges for the protective and warning fields, respectively, a scanning angle of 270°, two pairs of protective and warning fields, switching of the fields independent of processes and speed, lightweight and compact construction design as well power-saving electronics. Thanks to the S300s, the AGVs at schlott are always traveling safely. Obstacles or persons are detected so far in advance that the heavily loaded vehicles manage to brake gradually. Once the obstacle disappears, they continue to travel on automatically. In the high-bay warehouse, the switching of the warning fields allows approaching a wall up to a few centimeters while maintaining the full safety function.

Personnel protection for AGVs solved in the efficient way typical of Effing: for the task required at schlott, the S300 Advanced provides maximum safety and an optimum extent of functions.