Custom infeed and outfeed handling system for an industrial oven

Challenge

Manufacturer of fire protective boards Etex replaced one of their drying ovens with a new and more energy efficient model.

Swapping out the oven, also implied that the infeed and outfeed handling system had to be replaced to match the new process.

Due to environmental reasons, the oven could not be placed in a pit. The infeed and outfeed handling system therefore required a custom approach and inventive thinking.

Etex chose us to engineer, assemble and integrate this new system, based on our constructive mindset to develop efficient solutions.

200 kilograms

This new machine had to be able to position boards of about 2 meters long and 1 m wide. The thickness varies by a factor 3. Going in the drying oven, the boards weigh around 200 kilograms.

After the drying process, the boards needed to bridge a height difference of about 2 m to continue their route.

A quality check is needed to ensure each board is sufficiently dried, before being stacked onto a pile with great accuracy.

The infeed handling system had to be able t withstand a dirty and wet production environment, and had to fit the footprint of the previous line.

Inaccessible

And finally, we had to build this custom infeed and outfeed handling system without the industrial oven itself being in place. Because once the oven would be completed, the area around it would be inaccessible.

Solution

We designed and built a custom infeed and outfeed system that ticks all the above boxes.

We’ll first walk you through the different handling steps. To then look at the design and engineering choices we have made.

Infeed system

Let’s start with the infeed handling. We divided the process into 4 buffer positions.

A roller conveyor takes over the boards from the filter press.
The panels are weighed by a conveyor containing load cells.
A turning conveyor rotates them 90°, to align with the industrial oven’s infeed position.
A transfer shuttle hands the boards over to the infeed rotation forks.

Outfeed system

The industrial oven then takes over.

After the drying process, our outfeed system comes into play. It performs 3 handling operations.

A chain conveyor takes over the boards from the outfeed forks.
The boards are yet again weighed to check if the drying process was successful.
A gantry system picks up the boards and piles them very accurately.

Now for a closer look at the design and engineering.

Safety

Safety is a top priority for Etex. Internal and external safety experts are closely involved in all design decisions and validations. We were responsible for our own CE marking, but also aligned with the oven OEM to ensure to a global CE marking of the complete line.

This included:

Coordination on exchange of safety critical data with the different parties involved
Clear separation of the line in different logical safety zones, safe separation of these zones following the line safety shut down matrix.
Compliance with European and Etex’s own safety standards.

Given the weight of the boards, we built in extra safety features. The gripper for example, is equipped with additional mechanical locking. If the suction cups fail, steel hooks ensure the board cannot come loose.

A pneumatically controlled brake makes sure the entire system can be locked.

Communication and controlling

Our software engineer went the extra mile to get the controlling for this entire production line right. Mechanically, electrically, safety and software wise.

Our infeed and outfeed system aligns perfectly with Etex’ existing filter press and the oven OEM’s installation.

Gantry and gripper

We built a custom gantry to bridge the height difference. A custom gripper equipped with a servo system and encoder guarantees the precise handling and piling of the boards.

Robust design, robust materials

As the infeed system of the industrial oven handles boards that are still wet, we had to make sure none of the material could drip into our machine. That is why we made everything on the input side in stainless steel. And made sure that motors and other critical components are sufficiently covered.