A fitting two-tier system

Excel Monorail Systems (formerly Translift Systems), a division of Excel Automation, has recently completed an extension to a conveying and handling system, which has enabled the Cockpit fit station on the MINI production line at Plant Oxford to be re-located 20m further along.

The move required the design of a new conveying and handling system to transport loaded platen out of the drop section to the new fitting position, relocating the manipulator (and standby manipulator), implementing a new light guard array to the new position and a means of returning the platen to the drop section for onward despatch.

The new 20m conveying system now takes the cockpit on a two-tier conveyor to a new Cockpit fit station, where it is removed from the platen and fitted to the vehicle. The empty platen is then lowered 900mm to the lower tier and returned to the same drop section that brought it up to the ground floor. From there it is transported back into a trailer for return transport.