Small series and their demand for flexibility

From a production point of view, large lot sizes are often easier and more economical to produce than small batches. But what should be done if components are only required in small quantities? Then flexibility is required.

Our customer, Fried Kunststofftechnik GmbH, based in Urbach, explicitly declares itself to be a manufacturer of high-quality plastic series with the greatest possible flexibility - small and very large series, in high quantities and also in low quantities.

Of course, there is no room here for established standard solutions. Not even in the painting line consisting of 10 manual painting booths with different ready-to-paint, freshly mixed 2K paints. This is why Fried approached us with the request for flexible mixing stations.

Our challenges: Container variants, viscosity and time limits

Containers of three different sizes were to be safely picked up and stirred on one stirring station each. An additional problem here was that the media to be stirred were in some cases extremely high viscosity textured paints. On top of that, there was a time limit: the mixing process was allowed to take between 1.5 and 3 minutes. Not a second longer.

The solution: flexible rapid agitator stations with special substructure

Stirring tests with the most extreme material (Mankiewicz ALEXIT textured coating) showed that our Drive eco-Drive 1800 combined with two Hollow body agitators eco-Disc achieved the required mixing in 1.5 minutes.

Based on these results, we built four rapid agitation stations (Agitator with lift with lifting device). For the quickest possible container change, our Quick-change system for eco-Quick agitator shafts for use. This means that the agitator shaft and agitator element can be replaced in seconds with just one movement.

The Special substructure Holds 5-liter plastic buckets, 10-liter plastic buckets and 15-liter metal buckets/hobbocks. The secure hold of the various containers is monitored by a mechanism on the container fixation. Suspended on the wall, dripping paint flows into drip trays. For space reasons, a flap had to be omitted. Instead, we designed a viewing opening with a sliding panel.