Handling Specialty has delivered a custom heavy-duty AGV designed to move massive gas engines for a client.

Two giant AGVs can operate in tandem

The customer in the gas compression industry needed a nonintrusive way to move its large engines around its manufacturing facility.

The resulting rugged, semiautomated AGV system includes a hydraulic platform for lifting and lowering the plant's heavy gas engines during production. The built-in platform can lift equipment up and down by 4 in. (10 cm). Two models have been developed: a four-wheel model capable of lifting 40,000 lb. (18,000 kg) and a model with six wheel sets and six cylinders that can lift up to 100,000 lb. (45,000 kg).

According to Michael Poeltl, Handling Specialty marketing and business development executive, one of the unique features of the six-cylinder AGV is its ability to operate in tandem with another six-cylinder system, doubling the lifting capacity.

The AGV is equipped with encoders that provide angular position information that can be used to initiate a variety of steering modes, including traditional steering (forward and reverse), side steering (all wheels orient to 90 degrees for sideways movement), and zero-turn steering (vehicle rotates in place).

An optical read head guides the AGV through the plant by tracking the system's position via a line painted on the factory floor.