The LA36 is integrated into the robot's lifting unit, which forms the hardware of the Scallog system for automated warehouse management. Besides the Boby robot, the software solution for controlling and monitoring inventory is an essential part of the Scallog system. One application example is provisioning management: A fleet of robots brings shelves with goods to the picker’s workstation. A shelf can weigh up to 600 kg in total. When loaded, the robots move at a speed of up to 1.2 m/s. A scissor system lifts the deck of the Boby. Lifting heavy shelves via the scissor system requires an actuator with a high thrust. This must always be available and the lifting must take place at a steady speed. Furthermore, the reliability of the actuator plays a key role here, as the robot must lift and lower many shelves during an operating day to provide goods to a picker in a goods-to-person concept.
The use of an electric actuator solution for the lifting function was beyond question. Even though hydraulic solutions might be an obvious choice for these heavy loads, they are hardly ever used in such applications. LINAK® offers electric actuators that can push up to 15,000 Newton. The high self-retention force and the various communication interfaces, thanks to the integrated electronic controller in the actuator, also speak for themselves.
"At Scallog, we’ve always preferred electric actuators, mainly because of their ease of use, compact size, robustness, energy efficiency and value for money," says Christophe Preveaux, Head of Electronic Systems at Scallog.
He also highlights the collaboration with LINAK:
"LINAK employees are always approachable and open to questions. They have always supported us with their high level of specialist expertise when we were facing various challenges.“
Early in the testing phase, Scallog noticed that LINAK electric actuators were a particularly robust, durable, and reliable component for their robot. Reliability was a key argument for Scallog.
Christophe Preveaux explains: "As we sell our warehouse systems worldwide, we need to ensure that we have a very reliable system. A failed actuator can be very costly. That’s why we rely on the quality of LINAK actuators.“
Customer requirements are increasing and Scallog is constantly working on improving and expanding the robot system. With LINAK, they get the advantage of a cooperation partner who is also a leader in new developments, such as by launching new communication interfaces for their actuators.
"The new CANopen interface would allow us to read more relevant data from the actuator and the entire system. A good way to make our systems smarter," Christophe Preveaux concludes.
Read more about Scallog on scallog.com.
