The task

Create a 15 m long gas cylinder conveyor line, what could make the gas cylinder transportation and marking and it also could automatically hang up the gas cylinder to another conveyor line

3 operator reduction to 1 operator

APreviously 3 operator was worked on this area (marking 1 person, transportation, preapration 1 employee, hanging up 1 employee). After the development the number of the operators reduced to 1 person.  Becasue of the lack of employees the company could use the released operators on another field.

Functions

• gas cylinder tilting to the conveyor – loading
• semi-automatic gas cylinder stamping with dot engraving machine
• neck marking quality control on display from distance
• handling of conveyor crossing – avoid collision (vertical and horizontal) – processing bridge
• bad marking – scrapping possibility
• automatic positioning and hanging up on a vertical gas cylinder conveyor line

Lean

From the beggining the operators work was measured. The design of the complete line was with the purpose to keep the job containt of 1 operator under 1 min. Operations, movementes functions were bind together to reach the tact time.

Final conclusions

• Cost reduction: certainly the released operator time is a very direct cost reduction factor. -2 operator who could use another area
• Output stability: The operator work become a balanced planned scheduled job. The cylinders start their way under a deifinte time preiod. The previous variable output become much more stable.
• Buffer smoothing effect: at the moment our line is a little bit faster than the next technology. This is why our line is a good buffer for the next line. It give a buffer and stability for the shot blasting.

Planning: I cut some video from the original plans. Many things changed during the fulfillment. The different dimensions and forms of the gas cylinders force us to make the modifications for the perfect fit.

Bridge – gas cylinders cross: Our conveyor line  crossed a vertical gas cylinder conveyor line. We have to plan very carefully the mechanical parts and the sensor parts as well to avoide any collision.

Gas cylinder positioning – rotating: We have to rotate the cylinder into a position where it could be hanged up to the other conveyor line. We solved the problems with optical sensors. We had many problems with the cylinders  mounted with the old style footring.

…and finally the hanging up of the gas cylinders: Instead of the manual lifting  we have to tune together the movement of 2 conveyor line.  Because of the heavy cylinders and high forces we have to take special care on the mitigation and on the safety. We define a different process in case of short gas cylinders and long gas cylinders because of the height limitation. We swear a lot for the last 10 cm at the longest cylinders becasue we had limited heights at the technology area.

Gas cylinder tilting to our conveyor line: We protect the operator with light lines. After the cylinders reach the horizontal position we tilt it to the track.

Gas cylinder marking: At the gas cylinder retesting it is necessary to place a permanent sign on the gas cylinder neck.  The operator set the position of the marking (10 sec). After the setup the machine itself will mark the necessary data. We help the operator quick work with rollers, quick fasteners. and laser guidance. We fix the gas cylinder and at the closing of the door the marking will start automatically. The operator has to accept the quality of the marking. He could do it or besdie the cylinder or from the loading part of the line on display.