Robots in the heavy clay industry
KELLER ICS develops and implements customised robotic solutions for various industrial applications. The key market is for machinery and plants for the heavy clay industry. In addition, robotic solutions by KELLER ICS enjoy a very good reputation in many other industries. Since the mid-1990s, KELLER has already been using robots in the heavy clay industry.
4-axis palletising robots with a loading capacity of up to 450 kg are mainly used in brick factories and 6-axis articulated robots in roof tile factories. Since 2014, 4-axis Delta robots are used for sorting and packing of smaller products. These robots are equipped with a 3-axis wrist allowing six degrees of flexibility in total.
Today, most of the size changes in brick factories can be achieved fully automatically by using servomotor-driven grippers. Besides, gripper stations allow for a very quick and easy change of the gripper when the customer wants to run another product size or another product.
Contrary to many other areas of application, the robots used in the heavy clay industry are not only subject to the test of continuous operation around the clock, they are in addition exposed to extreme dust and dirt.
Robot setting plants on the wet sideDue to the high preparation water content and their hole pattern, freshly extruded and cut common bricks are always risking to be deformed during the further handling process. The handling of the green products on the wet side is therefore regarded as particularly challenging and difficult.
All models at a glance Robot loading and unloading plantsDue to their preparation water content and their form and size, roof tiles are also running the risk to be deformed when the roof tile press is loaded and unloaded. Therefore, robot and grippers to load and unload roof tile presses are also designed to handle the products especially careful.
All models at a glance Robot setting and unloading plantsRobot setting and unloading plants are today's standard in the heavy clay industry. They unload the dryer cars, load and unload the kiln cars and, at the transition points of the separate areas, they transfer the bricks from one transport line to the other.
All models at a glance Robot systems to fill common bricksWith the introduction of the Energy Saving Ordinance in 2009, filled common bricks have become the new standard in Germany. KELLER played a major part in the development of the filling technology and is one of the world's leading manufacturers of filling systems for various insulation materials.
All models at a glance Packaging and shipping robotsRobot plants for packaging and dispatch have always been part of KELLER's performance profile. In many cases these are combined gripper suction devices for gripping pallets, interleaving paper and bricks.
All models at a glance Automatically guided transport systemsIn 1999, KELLER was the first manufacturer of machinery and plants using the driverless transport system for in-plant transport in a roof tile factory. Driverless transport systems can be optimally adapted to the frequently changing requirements of in-plant transport.
All models at a glance 
