Automated Storage and Handling of Cores and Moulds in a Foundry

Abstract

A recently installed automated materials handling system in a UK foundry is used as a vehicle to describe an engineering answer to an inventory management problem. The automated activity is between the production of cores and moulds from a sand/epoxy raw material and issuing them to the next stage of production—casting. Initial fragility of the product called for controlled physical movement and a limited useful product age required a close control over stocks and issues. Conveyors, storage and retrieval machines and other elements of the installation are described in terms of how they carry out functions of movement. Computers, programmable logic controllers and hard wired logic are described in hierarchical and functional terms.