Subject:
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autoFAQpost /dear-lego/kit_inv_build_process_auto.en.faq
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.faq
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Date:
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Mon, 12 Jul 1999 23:30:17 GMT
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1248 times
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Subject: Is the kit inventory build process automated?
Topic-Level: 1
Content-Language: en
Originator: Robert Wallace, 1999-01-03
Revision: Larry Pieniazek, 1999-01-04
Revision: Christopher Masi, 1999-02-27
Reference: http://www.lugnet.com/news/display.cgi?lugnet.faq:13
Reference: http://www.lugnet.com/news/display.cgi?lugnet.faq:45
Location: /dear-lego/
<P><I>From Larry Pieniazek:</I></P>
<P>
See <U>The World of LEGO Toys</U> chapter "Precision in Plastic" starting
on p. 67... p. 74 and 75 have good pictures. Text on p. 74 says that there
are 16 cassettes per bagger.
</P>
<P><I>From Christopher Masi:</I></P>
<P>
The process is automated, and I do not think I am giving away any secrets.
I have not worked for LEGO® Systems Inc. since 1987. As I remember,
there were about a dozen baggers around 1986-87. Most of the baggers had
16 hoppers, but two of them had 18 hoppers. A few (3 to 4?) operaters
made certain that the baggers were making the little plastics bags or
moving boxes to catch the full baggies. Usually two material handlers
made certain that all the machines had the right bricks (that was one of
my jobs).
</P>
<P>A brief description:</P>
<P>
The machines looked like long dragons spitting bags of LEGO out of their
mouths.
</P>
<P>
The devices were long conveyor belts (at floor level) with little buckets
riding on the conveyor. The bucket would pass under a hopper and a piece
would fall in (I think multiple pieces cold be dropped too). The bucket
would move to the next hopper get another piece...and so on.
</P>
<P>
I cannot remember if the buckets are weighed, but I do not think they
were. I think the count was checked when the brick fell from the hopper
to the bucket (however, when sets are boxed the piece count is checked by
weighing the set.) Then the bucket would go up a conveyor and at the top
the pieces were dropped into a waiting bag.
</P>
<P>
The bags were made from a roll of plastic. The sheet would be curled into
a cyclinder and fused along the side. The bottom of the bag was made by a
device that sealed and cut the baggie off. The sealing of a full bag
created the bottom of the next bag. The process contiued over and over
again.
</P>
<P>
The hoppers were neat. The top of the hopper was a bowl with a spiral
(approximately 3 studs wide) that ran from the bottom of the bowl to the
top. The bowls vibrated and the vibrating action caused the brick to move
<B>UP</B> the incline. It was very neat watching the LEGO bricks march up
the ramp.
</P>
<P>
The largest piece count box I ever remember handling was a box containing
10,000 small gears (the ones used in the first differential gear housing).
</P>
<P>
It was kinda cool handling the materials for these machines, especially
when staging the next run. We would be driving forklifts to get pallets
of LEGO bricks (the forklifts were yellow with a big LEGO Logo on them);
we would then create walls of boxes of LEGO bricks next to the machines so
we could switch over the run as quickly as possible. We thought of it as
a challenge, as in "How quickly could we get the next run up and going?"
There was no reason for it; it was just fun (hard sweaty work, but fun...a
lot of nice people worked there while I was there.)
</P>
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