[comp.robotics] AGV's For Sale

jschafer@purch.Columbia.NCR.COM (01/28/91)

     Please bear with me.   I am a neophyte when it comes to post-
     ing news.

     I have the distinct priviledge of finding a home for two wire
     guided  AGV's  and a zoned AGV accumulating  conveyor  system
     that are no longer used in our facility.   I am writing  this
     in  hopes one of you will help me find a home for these  guys
     (nicknamed Thunderbolt & Lightfoot).  

          1. maybe you are interested in buying them yourself

          2. maybe you know of someone who might like to buy them

          3. do you at least have any suggestions on where is the
             best place to advertize these for sale and how I
             should determine what they are worth?

     They  were purchased from Modular Automation  Corporation  in
     November  1988 to be used in an elaborate  material  handling
     system  in  our computer manufacturing  facility.   The  hour
     meters on both units indicate they have been operational  for
     about 13,400 hours.   I'm sure the hour meters have been run-
     ning  24 hours a day because 13,400 hours/24 hours per day  =
     558 days.   That's about how long the units were in use here. 
     But the units were only used one shift per day and even  then
     on a sporadic basis.   Unfortunately, they were planned to be
     used in a high volume scenario that never came to be :(  

     The  units  have a short section of powered conveyor  on  the
     front  and a clamping mechanism which gently grasps the  com-
     puter  in transit.   They are capable of automatically  being
     summoned to the appropriate conveyor line,  properly aligning
     themselves  to match up with the conveyor,  transporting  the
     computer,  lining up and depositing the computer  on  another
     line  and  then  returning to a  recharge  station  to  auto-
     matically plug themselves in.  The original project  intended
     to use the AGV's to automatically sort units by freight  car-
     rier,  automatically  consolidate multiple unit  orders,  and
     distribute the finished units to multiple staging areas.  But
     all we ever used them for was to take a unit from one line to
     another about 15 feet away.

     The  units have a redundant safety system - some sort of  vi-
     sion  system which prevents them from running into  obstacles
     or people and also a bumper which protrudes from the front of
     the  unit that instantaneously shuts the unit down if it  en-
     counters anything.  

     We have a lot of money invested in this system.   But I  will
     take whatever I can get for them.  

     If possible, please e-mail responses to me.

     ************************************************************
     John Schafer             jschafer@purch.Columbia.NCR.COM
     NCR E&M-Columbia
     West Columbia, SC        ph 803-791-6588  FAX 803-791-6588
     ************************************************************