Seamless linking of sheet metal storage systems and processing machines
by Hans Diederichs
An efficient, fully-automated material flow offers companies significant time and cost advantages in sheet metal processing. This is why Kasto has now expanded its product portfolio with a manipulator for the unmanned handling of sheet metal. The manipulator seamlessly connects the manufacturer’s fully-automatic storage systems with laser cutting machines from various suppliers.
Kasto’s new and cost-effective sheet metal manipulator is suitable for separating sheets, feeding various processing machines, and removing good parts and remnants. It is equipped with a vacuum cross bar, which picks up individual sheets in pre-prepared packages from the storage facility and places them on the table of the respective processing machine. The lasered individual parts and the residual sheet skeleton can also be removed from the working area of the machine using the rake cross bar. This permits unstaffed production at high throughput speeds and relieves staff of the laborious and potentially risky task of handling the large-format sheets.
One special advantage of this Kasto solution is that it can be flexibly combined with machines from different manufacturers, so users can be independent in their choice of machine suppliers and can implement complete, tailor-made systems to match the requirements of their sheet metal processing perfectly. Customers also have a range of options with the storage technology: among other applications, the Kasto UNITOWER and UNILINE sheet metal storage systems can be used together with the manipulator. With its compact and space-saving design, the manipulator can be easily integrated into almost any production environment. This seamless connection of storage facility and processing machines is an economical and sustainable alternative for both steel distributors and industrial manufacturing companies.
Source and photo: Kasto