Automation is something that has become an integral part of large newspapers, as automated guided vehicle systems play a role in the movement of newsprint rolls from a paper’s receiving area to a roll’s insertion into the newspaper press. Automatic reel loading and AGVs provide reliability, safety and accuracy, and FMC Technologies Inc., a company supplying material handling machines, recently introduced what they hope will be a total solution for newspapers.

“We have a new concept for newspapers,” explained Mark Longacre, marketing manager at FMC. “It is an integrated roll/reel handling system. What we do is use an AGV product in different places in the newspaper plant to do all of the material handling, not just roll handling.”

FMC’s new automated clamp truck takes 
rolls of newsprint from a facility’s roll receiving 
area to storage locations, tracking roll location 
and minimizing roll damage.
Photo courtesy of FMC Technologies

FMC is coming out with several new pieces of automated equipment designed to complete the sequence of steps necessary to fully automate the process of moving a roll of newsprint from its arrival at a printing facility to its eventual use on the press. Their first new piece of equipment is a fully automated clamp truck, designed to move rolls from a facility’s roll receipt area to the appropriate storage location. The vehicle automatically stacks rolls to maximize floor space, and with polyurethane linings on the clamp pads any damage to rolls is minimized. Sensors help the vehicle to safely move along travel paths and accurately position roll stacks.

Vehicle fleet management computers interface with barcode readers and the warehouse management system to enable rolls to be automatically stored and recovered when they are ready for use. This same system accurately keeps track of roll inventory to prevent roll loss or misplacement. FMC hopes that their clamp truck will help to reduce newspaper labor costs, increase storage capacity and safety and streamline warehouse operations.

“The clamp truck will work in conjunction with the warehouse management system and totally automate the warehouse,” Longacre said. “That device will take rolls over and put them on a stripper and they can be stripped automatically, and then we have another automated guided vehicle that will carry them into lay-down racks.”

FMC’s second new piece of technology is an automatic press loading vehicle, designed to accurately load newsprint rolls onto a press reelstand. Rolls that have been stripped and stored are removed from their storage location and loaded on to the APL, which moves a small distance to the press and uses and array of sensors to ensure accurate loading.

“We use two different vehicles, one to deliver the roll to the press and a separate vehicle to actually load the press,” Longacre explained. “I think of it as a decathlete. We could probably do that with one vehicle, but I think of it as a decathlete vs. a shot putter and a sprinter — we use two vehicles because one normally requires a longer distance of travel and one requires very precise accuracy in loading the press, so we optimize each vehicle for what it has to do.”

FMC’s automated press loading vehicle only moves a few feet, but it is important to ensure a high degree of precision and accuracy.

“It has sensors that measure its movement every bit of the way,” he explained. The APL “has to make up for wear on the press. It’s not good to just have it working day one, when everything’s new; it has to work day in and day out, and correct for wear,” he explained.

FMC also has a vehicle to automatically store and retrieve pallets of inserts for a paper’s mailroom. Insert storage locations are tracked to ensure accurate rertreival.

AGVs have traditionally been a piecemeal solution in the past. They’ve handled one little piece of the material handling in a paper but really not the whole operation, from newsprint arrival to press loading. To have automated vehicles run the entire gamut, a newspaper can use the same host system and simply continue to add AGVs.

Providing customers with AGVs for specific applications is nothing new to FMC, and now the company stands ready to bring a total solution to users, with the help of their new clamp trucks and ARL units. Coupled with the company’s narrow aisle vehicle for mailroom work, organizations have yet another tool available to them to help reduce costs and injuries, while increasing accuracy and efficiency.

“We’ve done each of the pieces, and now it’s time to bring them all together and really offer and integrated solution,” Longacre said.