Loading & Unloading, Flex Feeding, and Inspection in a Single Cell

ESPS designed a solution for Vernay that employs the six-axes M-20 robot arm to load moulds into and unload finished parts from a moulding machine. Depending on the End-of-Arm-Tooling (EoAT) the robots can handle a variety of different parts and operations.

In a typical example of the production process, the M-20 picks up a tray of metal inserts and loads it into the moulding machine. Once the moulding operation has completed its cycle, the M-20 removes the tray of finished parts from the machine and places it onto a workbench. The SCARA robot (the FANUC SR-6𝑖A) removes each finished moulded piece from the tray one at a time and holds it in position for a quality control check using computer vision. When the computer QC inspection is satisfactory, the SCARA robot places the moulded part onto a tray for conveyance further down the line for packaging.

In addition to the quality control inspection, the SCARA robot is also used to pre-position metal inserts onto a tray which the M-20 then loads into the moulding machine.

The system is flexible enough to allow for random quality checks by a human operator who can choose a tray for further manual inspection and measurement.

Vos described the solution in the following way. "The automation covers the entire process from feeding-in insert and assembly parts, taking out pressed products, and cleaning moulds, to the specific depositing of checked and approved parts. For all handling applications, FANUC robots are being used."

Vernay is pleased with the results, and Vos commented: "The full automation of these processes allows us to produce parts 24 hours a day without interruptions. Another advantage is the global availability of FANUC products and parts, enabling us to achieve interchangeability and standardisation. We are very satisfied with the functionality and have now deployed robots from FANUC in several production cells worldwide."