The Customer

A manufacturer with heart and soul. With this mindset and two manufacturing sites in Saxony, Monark Automotive meets the demands for value retention and appreciation in the commercial vehicle aftermarket. The company, now operating as Monark Automotive GmbH, traces its origins back to 1951 in Hamburg. More than sixty years of experience, a well-established tradition, and continuous innovation.

Technical Specifications

• Wire baskets and load carriers, base dimensions approx. 1,200 x 800 mm
• Weight: max. 800 kg
• Capacity: 10 conveyor units/hour
• Identification of the material being conveyed using a QR code
• Conveyor system for wet areas

The Execution

To recondition truck internal combustion engines, the cylinder-crankcase assemblies and their attached components are disassembled and cleaned in preparation for further reconditioning. The conveyor system is used to mechanically transport the disassembled parts from the disassembly workstations to the two fully automated cleaning systems as well as to the manual post-processing workstations.

For transport via the conveyor system, small parts are grouped together in a wire basket at the disassembly workstations, and the cylinder-crankcase assembly is placed on a load carrier. The wire basket and load carrier are then positioned on the conveyor system by a gantry crane for automated onward transport.

Design Details

In the area of the disassembly workstations, the conveyor drives can be manually shut off when unloading the material to facilitate handling with the gantry crane. In front of each of the two cleaning systems is a buffer area where the mesh baskets or load carriers are held without back pressure.

Vertical lifts are used to transfer the material to the cleaning systems and pick it up again at their outlets. Since the material will always have some residual moisture after cleaning, the conveying system is constructed of stainless steel for use in a wet area.

The Control System

A Simatic S7-312C controller handles the conventional control of the conveyor system components as well as communication with an external database. Using a QR code, the material being conveyed is identified before being transferred to the cleaning systems or to branch points within the conveying system and cross-referenced with the database.

Here, information from the parent ERP system regarding the motor type, the cleaning program to be used, and the necessary post-processing steps is linked to the corresponding QR code. Using this information, the wire baskets or load carriers are conveyed to the appropriate post-processing workstations.

A mobile control panel is available for manual operation of the system; it can be plugged into various areas of the system to ensure an optimal field of view.

A remote maintenance connection enables us to provide remote support to the customer in the event of a system malfunction and allows us to implement software adjustments based on customer requests in an effective and cost-efficient manner.