Chemical, painting, polishing and other specialized production environments require equipment that meets strict standards for safety and stability. As factory automation accelerates and manufacturing capabilities expand, there is an increasing demand for heavy-duty automated guided vehicles (AGVs) capable of operating in hazardous areas. Recognizing the opportunity in this rapidly developing market, a prominent leader in the explosion-proof equipment industry launched a project to develop a heavy-duty AGV that can safely transport materials across a variety of hazardous locations, while potentially exposed to ignitable gases or dusts.
Challenge
For this AGV project, the manufacturer wanted to develop a heavy-duty AGV with a load capacity of 2-3 tons and ATEX/IECEx certification for use in Zone 2 and Zone 22 areas where explosive gases and dusts may occasionally be present. At the same time, the goal was to achieve mass production in a relatively short period of several months. To reach these ambitious product-development targets, the manufacturer needed to address several technical challenges:
- How to choose a suitable servo drive system to meet the operational requirements of heavy-duty AGVs.
- How to optimize the drive parameters to ensure low energy consumption and high rigidity while carrying heavy loads.
- How to ensure effective management and collaboration as the project progressed and the size of the technical team grew.
Solution
Based on the customer’s application requirements, Kollmorgen provided a motion control solution of AKME hazardous-location motors with AKD servo drives, plus a full range of technical support to ensure that the AGV meets performance expectations. The AKME series builds on the proven performance of the AKM servo motor platform, adding enhanced design features to achieve ATEX (EN 60079) and IECEx certification for use in explosive atmospheres such as gas Zone 2 and dust Zone 22 hazardous locations. The AKME servo motors are also supplied with a shaft seal as standard, giving the motor an IP64 protection rating against the ingress of liquids and dusts.
The AKD servo drive has very high responsiveness, with a current loop bandwidth up to 4000Hz, speed loop bandwidth up to 1000Hz, position loop bandwidth up to 250Hz, and a data refresh rate up to 1.5MHz. The drive is optimally matched to the AKME servo motor to enable powerful, accurate control of the AGV.
Through the close collaboration between Kollmorgen and the customer’s teams, the heavy-duty, hazardous location AGV fully met the strict requirements for ATEX Zone 2 and Zone 22 certification, payload capacity and the travel speed requirements.
Results
The project also achieved aggressive goals for mass production at scale in response to rapidly growing market demands. It took less than six months for the AGV to go from prototype to launch with local certification. The AGV is now globally certified and widely praised for its exceptional performance in heavy duty applications across both standard and hazardous-location environments.
