Time plays an important role in the production of precious metals. In order to obtain even more speed and precision, Autocon Innovations in South Africa decided to install Festo technology in a new machine for the production of small gold bars.
The automated system that Festo supplied increases the loading capacity of the machine compared with existing solutions from 1,500 to 4,000 100-gram gold bars, worth around £10 million. The new machine also makes it easier to monitor the quality of the gold, since this can be read from the stamped logo and the serial number, and also from the precise weight tolerances. These tolerances are within a range of 5mg, reducing the risk of theft to a minimum.
The products supplied by Festo for the automated system ensure the production process is more reliable in the long-term. For example, the toothed belt-drive ELGG has a proven service life of 2,500km per slide.
The automated system offers a great deal of flexibility, since the combination of the new electric drive ELGG-TB and the toothed-belt axes EGC-120 allows an additional five slides to be added. What is more, the toothed-belt axes of the EG series provide a wide choice of motor mounting options. The motor can be mounted on any of four sides, and this position can be changed at any time.
For more information, visit www.festo.co.uk or www.randrefinery.com
