Robotic Automation has assisted a local manufacturer of electrical accessories to update and expand automation techniques for production processes. This has resulted in higher level of competitive performance.
The problem faced by the electrical accessories company was its power-point kit assembly that involved two metal screws slotted into a plastic faceplate along with stringent quality-inspection throughout. This made diverse fine-motor skills demands on the staff and made them highly vulnerable to repeated strain injuries.
When there are distractions to the staff's quality-inspection of all mechanisms, additional safety and liability issues in electrical products present cause for concern. The process necessitated the involvement of up to six staff per day in addition to a ‘gantry-mounted mould-extraction machine.’ This machine had the capability to service only one product design from a single machine.
The solution came with the adoption of MOTOMAN HP20, HP6 and HP6S robots. These robots come with gripping and screw insertion effectors and have integrated vision systems. They offer a work cell that presents safety with jigs and fixtures.
Robotic Automation drafted a robotic cell that was highly flexible and could instantly deal with two different plastic mould designs two different moulding machines. The robotic cell was also designed to adapt easily to future designs.
The MOTOMAN HP20 has the extensive working envelope in its class that is necessary for the task of eliminating the plastic moulds from two different machines. After that, the HP20 loads up to four moulds and conducts the activity of an indexing/rotating jig that revolves the moulds around to the next station. It is here that photographs are taken through a high-resolution vision system and each mould is checked for diminutive defects that are normally be almost invisible to people.
The next activity of the jig is revolving the moulds around to the MOTOMAN HP6S, the second robot. This short-arm model robot works narrowly with the mould, loads two screws through a succeeding vision system that rules out any rust or defects in the shape before inserting them mechanically into the mould face.
A final rotation that the jig undertakes presents almost four assembled kits that are also quality-approved to the MOTOMAN HP6, the last robot. The MOTOMAN HP6 stacks these moulds into a layer in the interior of the appropriate tote-bin made for each mould design. Then the robot places a slip-sheet amidst each layer until the bin is packed and ready for the HP6 to shift it onto the out-feed conveyor.
The benefits of this system include improved product safety, superior staff safety, better quality control, improved consistency, enhanced flexibility, improved productivity, exclusion of injury claims costs, elimination of lost production time costs, condensed labour costs as well as associated management and administration costs.