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Flexible transport
Intralogistics system: Multi-Carrier-System MCS
®
Today filling and packaging thousands of bottles of perfume,
tomorrow just a few tubes of
cream and the day after batch size 1 – everything on one and the same system. How this
works is demonstrated by the Multi-Carrier-System MCS
®
, a joint project of Festo and Siemens,
put to work in a filling and packaging machine from the machine manufacturer Optima.
T
he days when large quantities of
the same product were produced
day in, day out on one line are
very much in the past. A growing
number of product and packaging vari-
ants, ever shorter product life cycles as
well as the trend towards customised
packaging and products are posing huge
challenges to manufacturers of filling and
packaging machines and their end cus-
tomers. The Multi-Carrier-System now of-
fers them a solution which provides more
flexibility and greater competitiveness.
On track to Industry 4.0
The Multi-Carrier-System already incor
porates options which are relevant for
Industry 4.0. These include the particularly
flexible electromechanical design for cost-
effective manufacturing down to batch
sizes of 1, as well as the decentralised sen-
sor and intelligence systems of the work-
piece carriers and drives. Even the simula-
tion function, including a virtual twin, is
fully prepared for future system optimisa-
tion and dimensioning. Program data can
even be generated from the simulation.
Maximum flexibility
Within the system, the containers that
need to be filled, such as bottles, cans or
flacons, move one by one on carriers that
can handle multiple formats and are indi-
vidually actuated. The self-propelled
carriers are driven by linear motors. In
order to avoid jams, they move according
to the rules of swarm behaviour and in
synch with the process – either individual-
ly or in groups. The carriers can be freely
and seamlessly fed in and out of the Multi-
Carrier-System. Linking to an existing