PSA designed and built a library storage and retrieval system for electric car batteries. By creating an enclosed shelving system around ABB’s IRB4600 robot, it maximizes storage space while keeping all work done by the robot contained within an enclosed cell. The shelves were designed with a series of slots and trays which allows it to hold over 6,000 batteries at a time. This cell is integrated with a 30 foot custom built and servo operated (2) level conveyor that allows for infeed as well as discharge from the cell. The batteries move to the robot via conveyor, get scanned with an integrated barcode system, are placed in the coordinating slot on the shelves. The bar code and slot information is stored together in the control system. When the robot must retrieve a battery, it picks it from the shelf, scans the barcode to ensure it has picked the right battery, and then will place it on the discharge conveyor moving away from the cell. All doors to the cell are integrated with the safety system to require a powering down of the cell before any person enters for cleaning, maintenance or to manually pick a battery.

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