Multi-stage ejector improves energy balance of sorting system

Sorting packages efficiently is a highly demanded feature in industrial handling.

When implemented intelligently, productivity in intralogistics can be increased significantly. We modernised a package sorting system for the door manufacturer JELD-WEN and fitted it with a powerful multi-stage ejector of the FMC series >.
Compressed air consumption as well as noise pollution were significantly reduced and plant availability improved.

JELD-WEN Deutschland GmbH manufactures a wide range of doors and door frames in Mittweida and Oettingen. The company is seen as the most important supplier of interior doors in Germany. As well as efficient manufacturing, automated and optimised processes are essential in intralogistics. The doors and door frames must be securely packed with the help of a sorting system to ensure that the goods arrive intact at the customer’s premises. The 20-year-old system has now been upgraded to the latest technical standards in order to make sorting the different types of cardboard boxes as efficient and cost-saving as possible. The heart of the sorting system is a gripper with twelve bellows vacuum cups. Previously, each vacuum cup had its own ejector for vacuum generation – a very inefficient solution that uses a lot of energy and is also very noisy. The process was also error-prone and cardboard boxes were often not gripped correctly.

Veit Bluhm, Technical Sales Manager for Eastern Germany at FIPA, suggested using a central ejector as the vacuum generator instead of the twelve individual ejectors. A multi-chamber ejector of the FMC series with a high suction capacity was found to be the optimal solution, as it generates the vacuum very efficiently and reduces energy consumption at the same time. Applications with high leakage are safely handled by the powerful FMC ejector. This makes it the ideal product for processes in the packaging industry.

Tony Roscher, technical manager at JELD-WEN, provides a precise figure for the lower energy requirements of the modernised system: "Compressed air consumption was reduced from 540 l/min to 220 l/min. This corresponds to an energy saving of around 60 percent. We will now also put our other systems on the test bench to optimise energy management in logistics."

With the energy-efficient FIPA multi-stage ejector >, the system not only operates more smoothly than before, but its safety has also increased substantially. Packages no longer get stuck and the noise level has been reduced, significantly improving working conditions.
This application is an example of how using high-quality FIPA components can improve the energy balance of systems.