Mobil Oil Seaview New Zealand

This installation features two stacker cranes, with double reach tines, and a moderate sized conveyor system, servicing three palletisers, two forklift infeeds and two forklift outfeeds.

Its most unique feature of this installation was the complex storage and retrieval algorithms which the consultants had specified. These algorithms were executed by the “Movement Controller” with no apparent time delay, on an IBM-AT equivalent computer, by means of very special data indexing methods, which are now a standard feature of this software.

The conveyor system incorporates drop-rollers at the crane infeeds and outfeeds, alignment bars, sizing stations, scissor lifts, light curtains, and reversible conveyors.

Communications between the “Movement Controller” and the cranes is via high voltage bus bars.

There is no host computer system.

The conveyor PLC is Allen-Bradley, while the crane PLCs are Telemecanique.