Custom lift and transfer unit for luxury car assembly
April 27th 2009

Luxury car assembly requires a unique understanding of processes and maintenance. And the bespoke handling systems designed and manufactured by AMF Automation are flexible enough to take into account both the build process and the maintenance requirements of the system.

AMF Automation was tasked to design a lift and transfer that would lower a body and skid onto tooling fixed in and around the main lift frame. The original design for rollers created foul conditions with the tooling making it impractical for rollers to be used in this application. AMF Automation replaced the rollers with a dual lane modular plastic chain system. This would not only allow all around access but would benefit maintenance as no special skills or tools are required, compared with the replacement of conventional rollers and belts which can be time consuming.

As the lift and transfer was compact and had to be mounted below floor another concern was raised, the access to the lift motor was restricted and would require major down time to repair or replace the motor gearbox. This required the lift motor to be mounted out board which meant power to the cam arms would be via racks and pinion gears instead of the direct lift originally proposed. This gave the added advantage of a smoother operation due to the natural harmonic motion of the crank arms.

The AMF Automation installation included four special purpose rail riding lift and transfers for positioning of bodies and skids at various work stations over a 50m length of which the transfers passed over main gangways used by lift trucks and pedestrians. In order to keep the gangways clear of energy cables, troughs and trunking, it was proposed the transfers were powered using an inductive powered loop within the floor, removing the need for and cabling or metal work obstructing gangways and fork truck access.

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