Project Overview
Greif operates substantial industrial manufacturing and packaging facilities requiring the regular changeover and transport of heavy injection moulds between storage bays and production machinery. The moulds utilised in these moulding lines can weigh more than two tonnes, making manual manoeuvring impossible and conventional light-duty roller conveyors unsuitable.
Cadrill was commissioned to develop a complete mechanical design for a heavy-duty mobile conveyor and transfer bench. The machine needed to move safely around the client's site facilities and provide micrometer-level mechanical positioning to push and pull moulds into the machine platen opening.
The Engineering Challenge
Transporting concentrated payloads exceeding two tonnes on a mobile wheeled chassis creates severe structural deflection and stability challenges. Furthermore, transferring the mould into the clamping area of an injection moulding machine requires exact positional alignment along both lateral and vertical axes to avoid damaging guide pins and tie bars.
The design required heavy-duty structural steel weldments, high-capacity caster wheel mountings and an integrated mechanical push-pull carriage capable of exerting high axial force under complete operator control.
Cadrill's Design Approach
Using SolidWorks, Cadrill created a heavy-duty mechanical design tailored to plant operations:
Heavy-Duty Structural Framework: The chassis was modelled using heavy structural hollow sections and stiffened steel plates, distributing the concentrated multi-tonne payload evenly across heavy-duty swivel casters and floor-locking footpads.
Ball-Screw Push-Pull Mechanism: A heavy-duty linear ball-screw drive system was integrated into the central bed of the conveyor. By translating rotary input into high-force linear motion, the ball screw allowed operators to smoothly feed the heavy mould onto the machine platen or retrieve it during tool changes.
Low-Friction Transfer Bed: The top transfer deck incorporated hardened steel rollers and side alignment guides, allowing the mould to glide smoothly into position with minimal tractive resistance.
System Architecture & Mobility Hardware
Manufacture-Ready Design
Cadrill issued a complete set of fabrication drawings to enable workshop steel fabricators and machinists to produce the mobile conveyor accurately:
- Structural steel fabrication drawings with weld symbols, gusset plate details and assembly tolerances.
- Machining drawings for the ball-screw end-bearing blocks, drive couplings and linear guide brackets.
- Flat-pattern DXF files for laser-cut chassis gussets, safety guards and caster mounting pads.
- Comprehensive Bills of Materials (BOM) detailing standard proprietary components including ball screws, pillow blocks and casters.
Project Outcome
Cadrill's engineering design provided Greif with a robust, purpose-built mobile handling solution that transformed mould changeover procedures. The combination of a high-capacity mobile chassis and an integrated ball-screw positioning system eliminated hazardous manual handling, reduced machine downtime during tooling changeovers and ensured smooth mould alignment into production machines.
Related Mechanical Design Services in Liverpool
If your business requires bespoke heavy-duty mobile conveyors, CNC machined tooling, factory handling systems or linear positioning equipment in Liverpool, Cadrill delivers practical, manufacture-ready mechanical design. Serving machine builders, heavy fabricators and plastic moulding plants across Liverpool, Merseyside and the UK, we turn heavy material handling challenges into robust 3D CAD solutions.