Land Rover Seats
FATA Automation Limited were contracted to supply Storage & Delivery Conveyors for both Seats & Cockpits required for the Land Rover T5 model produced at the Solihull Plant.
The front and rear seats are supplied to the vehicle assembly area by means of a ‘Just in Time’ (JIT) conveyor system.
Up to twenty seven sets of front and rear seats are brought to the Land Rover plant on specially fitted lorry trailers. The seats are delivered on pallets on sections of conveyor within the vehicle trailer which, when docked, form part of the overall JIT conveyor system. There are seven conveyor sections, three for rear seats, two for front right seats and two for front left seats.
When the trailer has docked, its conveyor sections are coupled to the main conveyor system and all seven lines of pallets are moved out of the lorry trailer. They are drawn initially onto a conveyor system known as the ‘false trailer’. When all pallets are discharged from the trailer, loading of the trailer with stacked empty pallets commence. While the trailer is being loaded with empty pallets, the loaded pallets are sorted into sets from the ‘false trailer’ for onward movement to the vehicle assembly area via a series of high level roller conveyors.
Approaching the vehicle assembly area, left hand, right hand and rear seat pallets are detected and are routed to one of three drop lifters. Pallets are lowered by the drop lifter and are transferred to a line-side conveyor ready for presentation to the vehicle by manipulator.
Empty pallets are returned to the drop lifters and are raised to the high level return conveyors to the pallet delivery area.
En route two empty pallet stacking units are installed, the rear seat pallets are stacked three high and the front seat pallets are stacked four high. The stacked pallets proceed along to two further drop lifters where they accumulate to await loading into an empty trailer.