This system was developed to transfer Hard Disk Drives (or HDD’s) from a production conveyor line to transportation boxes. The boxes were fitted into a movable, double-sided trolley unit, enabling boxes to be populated on both sides. The trolley design required the boxes to be ‘canted’ backwards at an angle to ensure that the HDD’s remained secure during transit.
A particular challenge with this system was that only a very small section of the HDD was exposed when in the transportation box; the available area was not sufficient to secure the HDD horizontally when gripped, so a unique gripper mechanism was perfected to allow the HDD to be gripped and then supported whilst being transferred from conveyor to the transport box.
The system had trolley units fitted to both sides, and the inner automation was able to load and unload HDD’s from these sides, giving the maximum capacity of handling between trolley changes.
