Heavy duty conveyor indexed by AC geared motor

Alumas, the Lancashire based supplier of modular and bespoke conveyor systems, has just installed a specially designed indexing roller conveyor, capable of holding and transferring up to 90t of press tooling. The end customer, Japanese and American owned Futaba-Tenneco of Burnley, is one of the UK's biggest suppliers of car components to the Japanese car manufacturers. This heavy-duty conveyor is indexed accurately and reliably with three Lenze AC geared motors.

Futaba-Tenneco supplies on a "just in time" basis, and so the ability to make rapid tool changes - several times a day - is of paramount importance.

Among the key requirements for the conveyor system was the ability to hold up to three complete tool assemblies, each of which can weigh up to 30t, and for these to be indexed along the conveyor as they are loaded and unloaded - in either direction.

The 16.5m-long roller conveyor is 2.3m wide and is driven by three Lenze geared motors.

A helical bevel design was chosen with a high service factor to suit the arduous duty.

The gearboxes contribute to the accuracy of indexing with high efficiency of 95% and low backlash of 7arc-min.

Despite a high output of more than 2600Nm at 7.5rev/min, the gearbox footprint is only 527 x 270mm.

Gary Howard, Futaba-Tenneco's Project Engineer, commented: "We are delighted with the conveyor, and in particular with the service received from Alumas.

The whole system was delivered on schedule, installed during the holidays and training given at 7.30am - between shifts, all with no loss of production.

In fact, we are so pleased that we are considering commissioning a second system which will return used press tools to the tool room".

Alumas, a member of the NIS Group of companies, specialises in modular belt, roller and assembly pallet conveyor systems.

They also supply a wide range of aluminium profiles and assembly elements, available either as individual components, or assembled into frame works, cabinets, guarding, panelling or workbenches.

The geared motors supplied by Lenze are part of the G-motion range which extend up to 45kW with five different gear configurations.

Modularity together with extensive UK stocks means that most requirements can be delivered in a few working days, or even, if required, next day.