FMC Technologies' Self Guided Vehicles (SGVs) work in all phases of automotive manufacturing, always protected by SICK PLS Laser Bumpers™;. There are currently over 200 SICK PLS Laser Bumpers™; installed in Self Guided Vehicles working in automotive plants in the United States.

From a fleet of thirty tuggers pulling 30,000 lb. of stamped car doors in Twinsburg, Ohio to hydraulic reach fork trucks in Romeo, Michigan lifting pallets of engine blocks, all SGVs are outfitted with PLS Laser Bumpers™; from SICK. A well-received advancement over earlier generation contact bumpers, PLS Laser Bumpers™; are mounted low to the ground and on vertical towers to see forward and reverse as these automated material handling robots move around busy manufacturing facilities. An audible alarm sounds if the Slow Zone of a PLS Laser Bumper™; is blocked, alerting personnel nearby to remove obstacles from the vehicle path.

Flexibility is built into this safety design with the use of the SICK Laser Scanner Interface unit, which allows various protection areas to be used in different parts of the plant. Tight corners require smaller protection zones, while long straight aisles use deeper safety areas. With extended protection zones, these vehicles can move at maximum speed with no reduction in safety.

In auto assembly plants, FMC Technologies' SGVs with conveyor decks transport bins of piece parts from receiving to storage or directly to assembly stations, all requested and directed automatically without human intervention. In final assembly plants, those racks of stamped parts pulled by SGV tuggers in another facility are delivered again by FMC Technologies high reach fork vehicle to automated over and under conveyors.

From sheet steel delivered to huge stamping machines to bins of small assembly components, FMC Technologies' SGVs with SICK's PLS Laser Bumpers™; accelerates the movement toward total automation in one of the world's largest and most capital intensive industries.