IMPROVEMENT OF INTEGRATED HANDLING SYSTEMS FOR ALUMINIUM PRODUCTION CHAINS: MOVING ALUMINIUM FROM UPSTREAM TO DOWNSTREAM
D. Trenti, DimaSimma Intralogistic Srl, Italy
C. Minari, DimaSimma Intralogistic Srl, Italy
Abstract
Both the technological and economical researcher state that the factory of the future will be and must be automatic and strongly integrated. Some European Governments call this trend the “4th industrial revolution” or “industry 4.0” or “smart factory”.
“Smart factory” means to make possible the co-operation among workers, machine and instruments, so as to obtain a smart production able to monitorate itself in total autonomy.
The deal of this 4th industrial revolution is to reach an industrial production totally automatized and interconnected: this is what DimaSimma Intralogistics is proposing since many years in several industrial fields.
For the aluminium field, already in the 2005 we were installing the first automatic warehouse for raw profiles interconnected with an automatic commissioning system and a vertical painting line.
At that time, in order to make this interconnection, we had to develop a software program integrated and integrable with the physical system in order to perform the appearantly impossible task of conciliating from one side the needs of extrusion and painting, that are based on big volumes, with the demand of the market on the other side, requiring lower quantities, in shorter time and -what’s even worse- with a dramatically increased differentiation in colours and finishing.
In the industrial history of the aluminium production, many progress were done in order to improve the quality in each single production phase: extrusion, finishing, packaging as well as to maximize the use of energy. Now it is the time to reach a global vision and focus on the application of technologies that can improve the productivity by means of an efficient use of the resources.
- We have to consider that in the aluminium production there are few main factors that influence the final cost of a finished profile:
- Raw material
- Energy
- Labour
- Handling (by handling, we mean the material flow inside the factory: to move the profiles from press to oven, from oven to finishing, from finishing to commissioning, from commissioning to packaging and so on)
Of course it is very important to improve quality and reduce energy consumption, but very few companies are taking in consideration that the last changes in the market, (lower quantities, shorter delivery time, extreme differentiation in colour and finishing) made that the 4th factor, the handling, in the last years had an exponential growth in the final cost of the finished profile.
By the way, the first 3 factors (cost of raw material, energy and labour) are very difficult to change, and Country by Country are the same for all manufacturers. The 4th factor, the management of the handling, changes for each company and it’s the only one on which each company has the possibility to intervene.
Our logistic solutions are designed in order to improve the existing “value chain” with the purpose to reach a “lean” production. The concept of “lean production” is based on the elimination of those activities that not only do not produce any added value, but even can create damages, by causing negative impacts on the whole chain.
There are some milestones to reach the goal of the “lean production”:
- Advanced Manufacturing Solutions: i.e. interconnected, flexible and highly efficient manufacturing system
- Horizontal and vertical integration by data exchange
- CPS: Cyber Physical System, i.e. physical system strictly interconnected with IT, able to interact and cooperate with other CPS.
In the aluminium field, DimaSimma is applying these concepts since many years:
- 2005: realization of the first integration within automatic storage, commissioning and painting.
The deal was to reduce the delivery time in spite of the increased diversification, and at the meantime to reduce the manufacturing costs.
The warehouse, thanks to an automatic SR machine, provided with a double platform and a specific software, eliminated the passive movements and reduced the access time to the profiles.
The commissioning system, interfaced both physically and informatically with the automatic warehouse, enabled to satisfy the demand of the market of a strong differentiation even by keeping the economic batch for extrusion and painting.
- 2008: design and realization of a logistic system for a full-integrated extrusion factory.
The same concept, to transform the warehouse, from a static deposit into a dynamic logistic system able to improve the efficiency of commissioning and painting, was extended to the whole factory. The factory surface is of 45.000 square meter. The capacity is of 26.000 tons/year with 3 extrusion lines.
The logistic system has an automatic storage for 4,400 basket (4.400 tons capacity) and keeps 250 aluminium packets in movement in the different production area of the factory at the same moment: painting, anodizing, commissioning, thermal break, mechanization, wood effect, packaging and delivery.
- 2013: realization of the LSS, Layer Sorting System, a specific system for the interconnection of the painting area with other two production phases: thermal break and packaging. Here instead of moving skids or basket with profile, we were handling directly the profile layers.
- 2017: The most recent application is the integration of AGVs with automatic warehouse and automatic stacker cranes. Here we have reached a further step in the automation.
The combination of automatic warehouse, AGVs and automatic stacker cranes is at all effecta what the economists are calling CPS: Cyber Physical System, i.e. physical system strictly interconnected among them by means of IT.
Indeed, the automatic stacker cranes is automatically placing a basket on, or taking a basket from the AGV vehicle; the AGVs goes alone either to the automatic warehouse, where it retrieves or deposits the profiles, or to the working station at the different process areas (coating, packaging, etc, all without human intervention.
In case the geometry of the factory allows it, the warehouse can be directly connected with the presses and several finishing lines, packaging and delivery, as already realized in the 2008 starting from a green field. But in most of the cases, there isn’t such an ideal situation.
The normal situation of an extruder is an existing factory with a geometry that doesn’t allow the installation of a warehouse in a direct connection with the several production areas.
Thanks to the interconnection among Cyber Physical System, automatic warehouse, AGVs and stacker crane, it is possible to reach a full automation and a complete traceability of the profiles, also when the factory shows some physical constraint.
The base of the study of such solutions is a deep analysis of two flows:
- the material flow
- the information flow
A careful study of both flows enables to project and manufacture efficient logistic installations and thanks to a specific software it is possible to maximaze the efficiency both of machinery and of the management.
Thanks to the interconnection among the Cyber Physical System and the communication among the different process, the management can obtain important feedback data for the improvement of the results.
Why do we include this into the “4th industrial revolution”?
Because the integration of the automatic warehouse with AGVs and automatic stacker cranes is comparable to the same revolution that happened in the transport field with the introduction of the intermodal solutions.
Few decades ago, the intermodal freight transport became the most competitive transport solution, by using multiple modes of transportation (rail, ship and truck), without any handling of the freight when changing modes. Nowaday we cannot think to a transport without intermodality.
In the same way, the future in the aluminium field, will be of deep integration among automatic system, full automation and ininterrupted traceability.
The traceability is also a key factor for a “smart production”, as for a full automatization, the flow of information and the data exchange among the Cyber Physical System is so important as the physical flow of the material.
Advantages offered by a smart factory are efficiency, traceability, flexibility, safety, competitiveness.
Same concepts of advanced manufacturing and integration among Cyber Physical System have been applied also for dies, sheets, coils and so on.
In facts, for the aluminium field DimaSimma is proposing solutions of integrated logistics also upstream, as for the handling of slabs between the cast house and the rolling mill.
In this case we applied the AGV-LGV technology, with smart vehicles able to carry the heavy slabs (40 tons) at a still hot temperature (300° C) at a speed of 60 meters/minute.
The advantages of this solution, besides the efficiency and the reduction of labour, were safety for the workers and improved environmental conditions, as the vehicle are functioning by battery.
