High performance and the use of state-of-the-art technologies in production play an important role at Liebherr. With this in mind, Liebherr Components has introduced a new pallet handling system (PHS) at its production site in Biberach (Germany). The PHS is linked to two turning and milling centres for the production of powerful drive units and rope winches.
“We have replaced our previous machining centres on site to be able to cover the high product variance with greater flexibility”, explains Florian Kraljic, manager of the cubic parts department at Liebherr in Biberach. The new machining centres, however, need to do more than just milling, they should also be able to turn work pieces and connect to the PHS. The concept behind the idea is to manufacture raw and finished parts in just one sequence – flexibly and around the clock.
The new PHS allows a large number of work pieces to be fully machined in a single work sequence. With an appropriate tool management, two machines can produce in parallel. Different components can, thus, be manufactured simultaneously. All this allows a high variance of components – 67 machine pallets or chucks and 62 material pallets can be stored in the system. If necessary, the system is further extendable. But the size of the system is already impressive. Together with the PHS, the machines take up the space of half a football field. The turning and milling centres are equipped with very large tool magazines with each machine holding around 700 tools.