The GoPal® solution at Schaeffler
As a leading global supplier to the automotive and industrial sectors, the Schaeffler Group has been driving forward groundbreaking inventions and developments in the fields of motion and mobility for over 75 years. With seven buildings at their production site in Romania, Schaeffler began looking for a way to automate their internal pallet transport.
The challenge
With difficulties in acquiring warehouse staff, and with a keen interest in innovative technology, Schaeffler was looking for a way to automate their internal transport of various pallet/containers sizes and loads, so the company tested several automation solutions from various robotics providers.
The solution
Schaeffler ultimately selected the GoPal solution not only because of its inherent safety and flexibility, but also because the GoPal can be deployed in just a few days, with almost no changes to existing infrastructure, no production downtime and without involving any third parties.
Schaeffler deployed the following GoPal solution:
- Mix of GoPal E24/E24W robots
- Pallet Stations with Call Buttons
- Auxiliary Boxes to enable the robots to automatically open doors
One of the challenges was the requirement to transport large bearing rings measuring up to 1,6 m in diameter and weighing up to 1.350 kg.
As the GoPal E24W is certified to a maximum load of 1.230 kg, Robotize – together with Schaeffler and our Romanian partner, Novomatix, - conducted a thorough risk assessment for the increased load, which Schaeffler subsequently approved.
In turn, the increased load resulted in the requirement for a stronger pallet, which lead Novomatix to design custom pallets made of a mix of aluminium and plastic.
The robots perform the following tasks:
- From finished goods to warehouse: once the pallet is full, the operator pushes the Call Button. A robot arrives, picks up to the pallet and transports it to the warehouse.
- From warehouse to production line and then return to warehouse: the robot transports a tool holder with special tooling from the warehouse to the production line. The production line employee then removes the tools, and the robot returns to the warehouse with the tool holder.
- Line feeding with bearing rings weighing up to 1.350 kg (2,980 lbs.)
The Benefits
Impressed by the high level of intralogistics automation, Schaeffler has decided to scale the GoPal solution to transport the finished bearing rings to the assembly area and the warehouse.
