Sorting system for the automotive industry SPDR

transfer vehicle

World-First Temporary Storage and Sortation System “SPDR” Developed In 1957, Daifuku supplied Japan’s first chain conveyors for body transport to an automobile plant. Since then, we have achieved many results in almost all processes of automobile production. For the construction of main assembly lines, in addition to innovative conveyor systems, we have provided various solutions for improving productivity regarding parts handling in the lines and parts supply to the line side. However, systems for the reception and storage of parts from suppliers and timely retrieval according to production schedules often required human labor. To improve such a situation, we developed and launched the SPDR (pronounced spider), a temporary storage and sortation system for parts in December 2014. Flexible handling of cases varying in size The SPDR comprises of the arm, which automatically lowers and raises to grasp cases of parts; a girder, which enables movement in four directions; and the rails and support columns for the girder. The system is able to stack cases directly on the floor of the open area within the support columns. The chuck on the arm is a proprietary technology, and is the world’s first to handle cases of varying sizes. It can grasp cases one by one or in a stack and thus can easily handle cases on lower layers, which facilitates operation, such as picking retrieval and grouping retrieval, to satisfy requirements on the line side.