New York Times Purchases FMC Laser-guided AGVs

By: E&P Staff The New York Times has ordered 17 laser-guided roll-handling vehicles from FMC Technologies, Chalfont, Pa., for its College Point production plant in New York City's borough of Queens. FMC also will ugrade the facility's existing press-loading vehicles (APLs).

The new automatic guided vehicles will supply newsprint rolls to the plant's five Goss Colorliner presses, and to the new Colorliner 85, scheduled to go into production next April --when the roll-handling system is to go online, according to FMC National Sales Manager Paul Roche.

FMC will ugrade the 34 APLs used to load rolls onto the reelstands and replace obsolete host computer controls. The new Goss press comes equipped with its own APL, and the new FMC guided vehicles will be able to load paper right to it without the need for modifications, says Roche.

The guided vehicle fleet will transport newsprint rolls, waste carts, core carts and butt cradles to and from the presses in a completely automated fashion, with little human intervention.