Red Viking Wingspan Battery-Free AGVs Offer Flexible, Low-Maintenance Solutions Wherever Intelligent Conveyance Is Required
Jane Alexander | March 11, 2015
Traveling with Siemens to Red Viking corporate headquarters and production facilities in Plymouth, MI, prior to the start of this week’s Manufacturing in America Symposium in Detroit, the international trade press was treated to up-close views of a range of state-of-the-art manufacturing and testing technologies. Among the highlights from a maintenance and reliability standpoint were plant-floor demonstrations of Red Viking’s inductive power transfer (IPT)-based Wingspan Battery-Free AGVs.
Wingspan AGVs provide intelligent, automated conveyance with full positional awareness, without the expense or environmental concerns of batteries or chain-based technologies. According to Red Viking, these low-maintenance systems are ideal for factories and MROs and offer significant flexibility in assembly-lne operations.
With the only battery-free AGV test track of its kind in the U.S., Red Viking proves out all of its AGVs, software and controls before they ship. Because the physical installation of these units is so minimal, the company says it’s simple for operations to respond to changes in product, process or path. Plant personnel can add capacity or change line paths over the weekend without tearing off miles of metal track. Unlike magnetic tape for battery-powered AGV’s, the inductive power transfer guidance system communicates both data and location.
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