The empty gas cylinders are pushed from the transport grid boxes onto the chain conveyor. © HaRo

Once they arrive at the push-out unit, the transport securing device of the steel pallets is first lifted upwards, then the bottles are automatically pushed off the steel pallet onto the chain transport line and transported to the filling system. The empty pallet is moved to the next free roller conveyor positions.

To palletize the filled gas cylinders, the empty steel pallets are first positioned and fixed on the full cylinder push-in unit using a stopper-pusher combination. The transport lock is then lifted up again so that the full cylinders are pushed into the pallet by the chain conveyor. After the successful palletizing process, the safety device is lowered again and the filled pallets are transported to storage via the driven roller conveyors.

Separating and palletizing

To separate and palletize the TÜV-compliant propane gas cylinders, Caratgas installed a second conveyor system that works in a similar way to the first system: "At this system, the empty steel pallets are first loaded using a forklift truck and transported along the roller conveyors to the position of the TÜV-compliant empty cylinder insertion unit," says HaRo's design department. Once the safety device on the pallet has opened automatically, the empty bottles are pushed into the pallet by the chain conveyor. Once the palletizing process is complete, the safety device is lowered and the steel pallet filled with the TÜV-compliant bottles is automatically transported to the removal station via the roller conveyors.

With increasing capacity utilization, Caratgas turned to the Rüthen-based HaRo Group again two years after the installation of the conveyor systems described above with the aim of increasing the buffering options at the systems and decoupling the dependency on manual forklifts for loading and unloading. "We were able to meet these requirements by implementing additional chain conveyors and thus buffer spaces at the loading and unloading points of the system, which also gives the system a high degree of automation. The depalletizing and palletizing of the gas cylinders runs completely automatically, no manual intervention is required," says Markus Löseke.

With the ability to flexibly adapt and expand conveyor systems, which has become more important than ever in energy supply companies in particular, Caratgas makes use of a fundamental advantage of the HaRo concept: "The requirements in today's industrial companies are changing rapidly, making it all the more important to be able to adapt the internal material flow flexibly and easily to the changes," says Christoph Hackländer, Managing Director of the HaRo Group. "That's why we always offer our customers the option of expanding existing conveyor systems with the help of our modular system - without the need for major interventions in ongoing production."