Siemens offers new handling and sorting technology for cargo and parcel applications

Chicago, Illinois, Siemens Mobility presented five brand-new products for transporting, sorting and singling of all kinds of goods at ProMat, the material handling show held in Chicago, USA in January 2009. The portfolio comprises a crossbelt sorter, two variants of a singulator and a parcel handling installation kit. These new products are distinguished by their modular design and uniform interfaces and are therefore ideal for the fast installation of complex material handling systems.

The new electrical crossbelt sorter Variosort EXB120 makes it possible to individually control each belt conveyor on a trolley. Thanks to the Industrial Wireless LAN (I-WLAN) product from Siemens, communication between the stationary control system and the carriers requires no contact and takes place in real time. Designed for flexibility, the sorter can operate at speeds of up to 2.5 m/s.

The Visicon Singulator can singulate up to 9,000 items per hour continuously without recirculation and thus takes up only a minimum amount of floor space. In this form, it is completely new on the market. The system works with image processing and a special matrix of several belt conveyors in order to singulate items with an appropriate gap between them and to align them for further sortation further downstream. Visicon only needs a fraction of the floor space required by conventional, purely mechanical singulators.

Based on a robust mechanical design, the Singulator Sicon-M can separate up to 11,000 units per hour and can handle products ranging from sacks and packages to parcels and car tires. In contrast to comparable systems on the market, Sicon-M offers considerably better conveying qualities and a substantially lower risk of product damage, because the main singulation process uses skewed roller conveyors so that the items being transported are not pressed against a guide rail.

The Variobelt conveyor system rounds off the new portfolio of products from Siemens Mobility. Variobelt can transport goods at speeds of up to 4 m/s. A modular, robust conveyor belt kit that uses standard components, it is suitable for a wide range of material handling applications. What sets Variobelt apart from other conveyor designs are its very high availability and low maintenance requirement. It is available in four different standard widths: 800 mm, 1000 mm, 1200 mm and 1500 mm.


The corresponding photographs to this press release are available at:
http://www.siemens.com/mobility-pictures/visicon-singulator
http://www.siemens.com/mobility-pictures/variosort
http://www.siemens.com/mobility-pictures/Sicon-M

The Siemens Industry Sector (Erlangen, Germany) is the worldwide leading supplier of production, transportation, building and lighting technologies. With integrated automation technologies as well as comprehensive industry-specific solutions, Siemens increases the productivity, efficiency and flexibility of its customers in the fields of industry and infrastructure. The Sector consists of six Divisions: Building Technologies, Drive Technologies, Industry Automation, Industry Solutions, Mobility and Osram. With around 222,000 employees worldwide Siemens Industry posted a profit of EUR3.86 billion with revenues totalling EUR38 billion. www.siemens.com/industry

The Mobility Division (Erlangen, Germany) is the internationally leading provider of transportation and logistics solutions. With its “Complete mobility” approach, the Division is focused on networking the various modes of transportation in order to ensure the efficient transport of people and goods. “Complete mobility” combines the company’s competence in operations control systems for railways and traffic control systems for roadways together with solutions for airport logistics, postal automation, traction power supplies and rolling stock for mass transit, regional and mainline services, as well as forward-looking service concepts. www.siemens.com/mobility