Materials handling manufacturer cuts engineering time by 75%

Alvey Systems, the US-based manufacturer of materials handling systems for the consumer goods market, has cut its engineering development time by 75% after integrating machine controls, servo motion and HMI (human machine interface) functions into a single box system (running on a common database) across its range of package conveyors, automatic palletizers, gantry robots and related software controls. The firm achieved this by standardising on Entivity’s Visual Logic Controller (VLC) which has subsequently reduced both the number of system components and complexity. Key benefits to Alvey have been cutting the development time but also reducing control panel space by 50% and better control of system hardware costs. Gary Peterson, controls engineering manager at Alvey, explains: “Alvey customers now benefit from an open platform for the non-traditional tasks that are key to material handling applications. We have very high expectations for the advantages that our customers will realise from using VLC software.” Entivity has UK manufacturing customers including the likes of Ford, Corus and Dell.