AGV Environmental Considerations

[Guanton75]

I am to design an AGV like product that will need to perform in an industrial environment. The robot is intended for light loads, has an on board computer, powered by an AGM battery and is roughly 2 feet in diameter and 1 foot tall. I looking for insight as to what type of Environmental demands the system will have to endure. What typical temperature, humidity, dust ratings are and what standards are out there for these types of environment? Are there other issues that you've seen in your factory that you think I should consider?

I've received some excellent help from this site and would like to thank everyone for there help.

Thanks,
Seth

 

[Tunalover]

Guanton75-
Sounds like you're "reaching into thin air" for environmental specs. Does your customer have environmental specs or are you writing them yourself?

Tunalover

 

[Guanton75]

We are designing a product to sell to production facilities. We don't have a specific customer in mind however we see it going into chemical or assembly plants. I think it's safe to say we want to stay out of heavy construction. I'm looking for a general or average plant climate so we can tolerate most environments. One group suggested NEMA 12 and 95% humidity and 105 degrees F.

Thanks,
Seth

 

[Tunalover]

Guanton75-
NEMA 12 sounds good but you may wish to consider invoking an IP67 ingress protection level per IEC 529. That system is gradually replacing the NEMA system. It is becoming more widely accepted in the US and worldwide (as opposed to NEMA).

One consideration you need to make also is EMI and solvent resistance. Factories are extremely noisy regarding EMI. One source of EMI specs is MIL-STD-461 but I'm sure there are other, less benign commerical specs available.

For solvent resistance, silicone seals are about the best choice but you must, one-by-one, consider ALL chemicals at ALL target plants. There may be solvents involved that degrade silicone. Note that the doors and enclosures could have combination EMI/environmental seals and silicon is the normal choice for the matrix material.

Tunalover

 

[Tunalover]

Guanton75-
I said:

"One source of EMI specs is MIL-STD-461 but I'm sure there are other, less benign commerical specs available."

but I meant to say:

"One source of EMI specs is MIL-STD-461 but I'm sure there are other, more benign commercial specs available."

Tunalover