Various methods are used by the PU processing industry to handle moulds and mould carriers, each of them featuring benefits or disadvantages, according to the individual process to be executed and to the required productivity. Today turntables and carousel systems, as well as stationary moulds, are the common choice. Cannon engineering resources offer design and in-house manufactured dedicated plants and complete packages including mould carrier systems and moulds for every application and budget. The turntables and oval carousels are particularly useful to increase production volumes by offering a compact means of transporting the foaming moulds to the operator. These systems are well known to the seat manufacturers.

Turntables

The stations of the turntable can be designated to various process operations such as mould pre-heating, insert loading, foam pouring, curing and demoulding.

To optimize the performance of the turntable, the curing time of the foaming system needs to be considered so as to define the correct number of stations for foam curing in order to match production demands or operator working speeds. In a more advanced form, automatic tool management can be fitted to automatically open/close the tools and robots are used in place of operators to give a fully automatic plant. Depending on mould weights, the turntable can be designed with an external drive, central drive system or a combination of both.

Carousels

Carousels (a kind of turntable with an open central area) depending on the number of moulds, can have oval or circular shape. Oval conveyors are used when the factory space is limited since their oval configuration makes maximum use of the floor available area. Cannon carousels consist of a series of carriers with pivoting wheels running on appropriate tracks (oval or circular). Each carrier is fitted with a proper press to hold foaming moulds according to the different types of production. A bus-bar system provides electricity to the ancillaries (air compressors, water heaters, controls) on board of the carousel. The continuous movement of the conveyor is achieved by means of dragging systems mounted on board of the carriers.

The Carousel is an ideal solution for six or more moulds to produce medium to large size parts.

Pit-Stop-Line

For complex mouldings or when a wide range of different models has to be produced simultaneously, Cannon proposes a floor-based flexible conveyor: the Pit-Stop System.

The Pit-Stop consists of an oval carousel line with a row of service positions where the operators can work on moulds that have been temporarily taken off-line. The main advantage of the Pit-Stop flexible conveyor system is its extreme flexibility: each mould carrier/mould is mounted on an independent self-moving trolley, equipped with its own electrical circuit and electronic control panel, two-zone thermoregulator, vacuum pump and hydraulic unit. The stop time of each trolley in each station can be optimized and individually adapted.

The system combines the advantages of a stationary plant (efficiency and modularity) with those of a turning plant (rational use of resources: one mixing head, one operator or robot for each function, one suction point for the exhaust vapours).

The system is also ideal for maintenance and model changes: each mould carrier can be extracted from the line without interrupting the production. Also the plant modularity is enhanced: further mould carriers can be inserted in the line without forcing the operators to work at faster pace.

Cannon have supplied the Pit-Stop system to major manufacturers of automotive seats and welcome inquiries from Companies wishing to achieve the same positive results in their own factories!