Machine Tending

CNC Machine Tending

Application:

Aluminum extrusion is hand loaded and machined in three operations on CNC machining center.  Also, the parts required manual de-burring and a manual loading of a part marking press.  The customer required a system that would run un-attended, deburred, and marked the parts, lights out, for at least 4 hours.

Solution:

A fully automatic, standalone system utilizing a 6-axis robot with a pneumatic gripper with a pallet changer and a deburr and stamp station.  The system performs the following functions:

  • Parts loaded into a gravity feed station
  • Four Parts picked from gravity feed station and placed into a pallet.
  • Part pallet loaded with 4 parts oriented with first operation, four with second operation and four with 3rd operation
  •  Parts loaded into the CNC machining center on a custom designed pallet changer
  • When parts on pallet one completed, pallet is removed from CNC and second pallet is loaded into CNC
  • First pallet parts are removed by robot.  Four parts are picked by robot and moved to trim station.
  • Second operation parts are flipped to third operation position by robot
  • First operation parts are flipped to second operation position by robot
  • Parts from gravity feed are loaded into first operation position by robot
  • Process is repeated
  • Parts loaded into trim station a fed one at a time into stamping head by walking beam actuator
  • Part from stamping head are moved to deburr station where back side of holes are deburred
  • Parts are dropped in to container

Hardware:

  • Fanuc Robotics M10 6 axis robot with 10 kg payload and R30iA controller
  • Custom End of Arm tooling with
  • Four Robohand 2 jaw pneumatic grippers
  • Part feed station with enough capacity for 8 hour operation with pneumatic singulator with sensors
  • Pallet Station
    • Two custom pallets holding 12 pieces in each pallet
    • Hydraulic part clamping for each part
    • Pneumatic pallet transfer into and out of machine
  • Trim Station
    • Vertical, gravity feed with part singulator
    • Walking beam feed with pneumatic rodless cylinder
    • Pneu-draulic part stamping head with product ID and customer logo
    • Pneu-draulic deburr station with abrasive plates for hole deburr
  • PLC master controller with HMI
  • Aluminum extrusion guarding with lexan panels and safety interlocks

Software:

  • PLC master control program
  • HMI program
  • Fanuc Robotics robot programs
  • Interface with CNC machine

Results:

  • System designed for two different products with no tooling changeover
  • Increased through-put by 50%
  • Repeatable placement reduced rejects
  • Takt time now driven by robot system instead of operator
  • Exceeded customer requirement of 4 hour operation to 8 hour operation
  • Eliminated operator





Machine Tending in Action

DAC developed an automated system to aid in manufacturing a housing for a linear LED based flood light.  This flood light produces functional luminous intensities for lighting bridges and building facades.  The housing is received by DAC as an extrusion.  To create the completed part, DAC machines a slot into the extrusion for the lens to be installed.  The system has intelligence built in that allows it to compensate for parts that are misoriented, or dimensionally out of specification.  Using this type of automated system enables the manufacturing process to run unattended and creates a more repeatable process, ending in a higher quality part.

 

Injection Mold Tending

Application:

Product is loaded into an injection molding machine an overmolded with a thermoset rubber and then the flash is trimmed by an operator.  The previous system was slow, faulted frequently and required an operator to place each product for the pick arm to pick and place into the molding machine.  The parts are very large and require a hoist to move.  Customer required a system to de-palletize the wheels, load them into the molding machine and the re-palletizing the wheels once they were complete.

Solution:

A fully automatic, standalone system utilizing a 6-axis robot with a pneumatic gripper and a 3D vision sensor.  The system performs the following functions

  • De-palletize product from stacked pallet and re-stack on queue station using robot with 3D vision sensor
  • Pick product with robot from queue station and place into pre-heater
  • Pick product from pre-heater and place into injection molding machine
  • Pick product from molding machine and place on trim station for operator trimming
  • Pick product from trim station and re-palletize on pallet
  • Rejected product is placed on reject station

Hardware:

  • Fanuc Robotics R2000iC/165 6 axis robot with 165 kg payload and R30iA controller
  • Custom End of Arm tooling with
    • Robohand 3 jaw pneumatic gripper
    • iRVision 3DL 3D vision sensor
  • PLC master controller with HMI
  • Pallet and queue stations
  • Trim station shuttle
  • Wire mesh fencing with safety interlocks and trap-key access

Software:

  • PLC master control program
  • HMI program with user access levels
  • Fanuc Robotics robot programs
  • iRVision 3DL program

 

Results:

  • 6 total systems produced
  • System designed for flexibility of multiple products
  • Increased through-put by 15%
  • Quality inspection with vision reduced downstream defects
  • Reduced injection mold machine faults by not allowing bad material to enter machine
  • Takt time now driven by robot system instead of operator
  • Went from one operator per machine to one operator for 3 machines