The Clever Mounting Aid for Workpiece Carriers used for Inductive Identification

LuK GmbH & Co. oHG is an internationally active company of the Schaeffler Group. At eighteen locations all over the world, clutches for motor vehicles and tractors are produced and sold to automotive manufacturers all over the world. One in four new motor vehicles in the world leaves the assembly line with a clutch from LuK.

To produce clutches at LuK in the German town of Bühl/Baden the product is transported on work piece carriers. These work piece carriers are fitted with Pepperl+Fuchs’ inductive IDENT Control RFID read/write technology.

At some conveyor lines, the transport direction changes by 90°. The work piece carrier has an IDC-15-1K data carrier (lateral reading and writing at the roller conveyor with IVH-M1K). If the direction of travel of the work piece carrier changes by 90°, the data carrier is no longer in a potential read/write area. In the past, a complicated mechanical system (lifting cylinder) was used to place the work piece carrier so that it could be read and written with a 90° turn.

This work increased the production time (cycle time) and was cost-intensive as well.

Pepperl+Fuchs developed a holder for the IDC-15-1K data carrier that permits reading and writing from two sides (see Fig. 1).

The data carrier is placed in an IVZ-MH15 mounting tool. The mounting tool is shaped so that our data carrier sits at a 45 ° angle to two adjacent sides of the work piece carrier, which means that reading and writing is possible from two sides (see Fig. 2).

The use of the special holder saves costs because now only one inclined data carrier is required. The technically complicated mechanics of the lifting cylinder are no longer required because the work piece carrier no longer needs to be turned.