Délifruits' ends of line
Page in page
The challenge
Délifruits specializes in the development and packaging of still soft drinks (iced tea, flavoured water, etc) and fruit juices in PET bottles. In the scope of the implementation of a new bottle filling line, and in order increase its flow rates, the company was looking for a performant and evolutionary system to manage the flow of products: unloading of pallets of finished products to warehouses that are 100 metres apart, and feeding of the four packaging lines with empty pallets.
The project also included an increase in flow rates — from 123 to 150 pallets per hour — and a throughput of 12 stacks of empty pallets per hour.
Délifruits' high-speed and versatile packaging lines operate 24 hours a day and 6 days a week.
The end-of-line solution
Following a flow and implementation analysis, and a computer simulation of the installation, BA Systèmes proposed 6 AGVs of CM2 type. CM2 AGVs have 2 powered conveyors and get positioned at the end of conveying tables to transport pallets of finished products and stacks of pallets.
Délifruits opted for battery charging with permanent consumption, implying battery connection and charging on transfer bases, in masked time.
AGV Manager software allows the operators to manage the AGVs fleet through a high-powered display and system management interface.
The first tests were performed in December 2004 and the effective production for the first 3 packaging lines started in January 2005. The AGV system proved to be very flexible when the installation's layout was modified in 2006, following an increase in flow rates and the implementation of new delivery bases in the stock area.