LogiMat 2019

••• 10••• Innovationen Moving screws or pills with silicone muscles A conveyor system that adapts itself to size, weight and desired speed of the goods being conveyed U sing artificial-muscle ac- tuators, Professor Stefan Seelecke and his team at Saarland University have developed a new self-optimizing conveyor technol- ogy that adapts itself to the size, weight and desired speed of the materials being conveyed. The technology makes use of silicone polymer-based artificial muscles to transport dry bulk materials of all kinds, from foodstuffs to small metal components. By exploiting the properties of electromechani- cally active polymers, the Saar- brücken research team has built an actuator that they install at in- tervals below the conveyor belt. Vibratory conveyors are used in factories and manufacturing plants whenever large quantities of small objects – pills, screws, electrical components, gummy bears, etc. – need to be trans- ported from A to B. Convention- al vibrating conveyor belts ei- ther pitch the goods forward by means of rotary vibrators (elec- tric motors equipped with eccen- tric rotating masses) or they make use of the inertia of the goods to move the material forwards us- ing horizontal stick-slip (slow ad- vance, quick return) cycles. Until now, these systems have always vibrated or oscillated in a fixed manner being unable to adapt flexibly to the conveyed goods. A new adaptable conveyor tech- nology is now being developed by Professor Stefan Seelecke and his research team at the Depart- ment of Intelligent Material Sys- tems at Saarland University. Their conveyor system is able to adapt to the size, weight and any spe- cial properties of the material be- ing conveyed. It can gently trans- port fragile materials but can also speed up if materials need to be moved urgently. The engineers in Saarbrücken are specialists in the field of “artificial muscles”, which they develop from materials used in technical equipment such as robots or industrial machinery. Here, the researchers have cho- sen silicone, a deformable poly- mer that they can get to contract by applying an electrical voltage. “We print an electrically conduct- ing layer onto each side of the sili- cone film. This allows us to apply an electric voltage to the film,” explains Professor Seelecke. If the research engineers then alter the applied voltage, the electrostatic attractive forces change accord- ingly and the film compresses so that it extends upwards. Three of these silicone ‘muscles’ are com- bined to make a stack, which is then mounted below a conveyor made of smooth stainless steel. The engineers are able to control the motion of the silicone muscles very precisely, ranging from high- frequency vibrations to power- ful thrusts of high amplitude and high acceleration. As a result, they can create conveyor systems that are able to adapt to the mass and size of the bulk goods that have to be transported. Prof. Stefan Seelecke (l.) and his doctoral student with their conveyor system Photo: Oliver Dietze Logistik hat weiterhin gro en Bedarf an Servicerobotern Die Nachfrage nach Robotern war auch 2017 ungebro- chen, so das Jahrbuch „World Robotics Service Ro- bots“. Vor allem die Logistik hat steigenden Bedarf an mobilen Robotern und fahrerlosen Transportsyste- men (FTS). 69 000 dieser Systeme wurden weltweit installiert (plus 162 Prozent): 6700 Stück in Produkti- onsumgebungen, 62 000 vor allem in Warenlagern von E-Commerce-Unternehmen, aber auch Logistik- Zentren oder Krankenhäusern. Dort übernehmen FTS den Transport von bestellter Ware, Wäsche oder sper- rigen Gütern oder erledigen Botengänge. Impressum LogiMAT 2019 Verlag: CONNEX Print & Multimedia AG Große Packhofstraße 27/28 · 30159 Hannover Telefon: +49 511 830936 · Telefax: +49 511 56364608 E-Mail: connex@die-messe.de · Internet: www.die-messe.de Auflage IVW-geprüft. Auflagengruppe: E Redaktion: Cyrus Salimi-Asl Verantwortlich für den Anzeigenteil: Tina Wedekind Druck: Druckzentrum Neckar-Alb, 72764 Reutlingen MESSEJOURNAL DIE MESSE