Elevate was introduced at the September 2018 AMB in Stuttgart. Elevate is a robot loading system, with a large storage capacity, which takes up a small amount of floor space and is highly flexible. It was a hit. Now, a year down the line, Cellro has already sold ten Elevates. Flowserve, a company based in Etten-Leur supplying pumps, mechanical seals and valves, recently became our tenth buyer. In this article, we'll take a look back at how Elevate was developed and look at the future.
Demand for larger storage capacity
Before it developed Elevate, Cellro had already had success with Xcelerate, the flexible automation solution. Xcelerate offers our customers flexibility when automating small to medium-sized series. However, it seemed that there was also an increasing demand for a loading system with a larger storage capacity. This was particularly true of machining companies which make their own products. That's when work started on Elevate.
From “traylift” to total solution
Our traylift was a predecessor to Elevate. The traylift could be linked to a robot cell and offered larger storage capacity. However, the traylift could not be used as a stand-alone system. With Elevate, Cellro has developed a robot loading system with an integrated traylift. Production can continue uninterrupted thanks to the large storage area next to the machine. Greater storage capacity also often means a wider range of products can be processed automatically. This gave our customers a need for more insight into and an overview of their production. Cellro achieved this by successfully integrating additional features into the Elevate software.
Countless possibilities
Elevate is equipped with a large robot which makes even pallet handling an option. Clients can also choose a different robot instead, as it is separate from the Elevate unit itself. This means clients can take their pick of pallets and clamps. This also makes it possible to load a pallet with a given product. Last but not least: Elevate can be linked to two machines at once, either when first set up or later on. This makes it a future-proof automation solution. Our clients can relax – there's nothing to worry about.
Real-life experience
Clients love the fact that Elevate is a closed system that produces without interruption and can be loaded and unloaded while production is taking place. Because two workflows can run at the same time, the production process never has to be paused.
Imminkhuizen Metaaltechniek B.V., the first company to buy Elevate, uses the machine's large storage capacity to avoid machine downtime. Imminkhuizen, which supplies machine components, could previously only set up a new batch once the previous run had finished. Elevate allows them to schedule everything in advance. Grippers and clamps can be changed automatically on Elevate (thanks to the Fixture Exchange feature), meaning products with different dimensions can be processed one after the other without the need for manual intervention.
Another client's favourite Elevate feature is its software. Using it, human errors are carefully and entirely filtered out of the process; if there's a mistake, you can immediately see what's wrong and where the error is. Flowserve, the latest company to begin using Elevate, is using it for a multi-task machine, combined with the Collet Exchange feature. They run small batches with components that vary greatly between batches when making their own products.
The future of Elevate
If they want to, Elevate users can expand the robot loading system with a variety of extra options. For example, a monitoring station, a pallet docking station, or a chest of additional pallets or clamps can be added simply. We also expect new clients with complex production planning will increasingly look to Elevate to meet their needs. The possibilities offered by Elevate, together with its user-friendly control system, mean that the production process will be as controlled as it is stress-free.
