Product category:
Manufacturing Machinery and Plant Equipment
News Release from: Modular Automation International | Subject: Assembly machines
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial
Team on 12 December 2000
Speed and flexibility on telephone
assembly system
Modular Automation of Birmingham has designed and built an assembly machine that combines the use of cam drives with pick and place automation to achieve flexibility with speed.
Modular Automation of Birmingham has designed and built an assembly machine that combines the use of cam drives with pick and place automation to achieve flexibility with speed The machine, built for a major UK connector manufacturer is the first built as part of a strategic alliance with Bodine, the machine builder from the Unites States specialising in cam-driven assembly
This article was originally published on Engineeringtalk on 12 Dec 2000 at 8.00am (UK)
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Cam technology rewrites assembly machine rulebook
Through a strategic alliance with Bodine Corporation in the USA, Modular Automation has harnessed the benefits of cam-driven manufacture and combined it with their own modular engineering technology
Automation for assembling electrical switches
MEM250 of Oldham has automated new process for assembling a range of electrical switches on two separate assembly machines using a process designed and built by Modular Automation.
The system assembles mobile telephones and uses a Linkline conveyor to transport the workpieces between the automatic stations.
Station 1 fits the antenna, fed from a bandolier and cropped into the body of the telephone.
This is a critical pressing requiring extremely accurate tooling as any variation in the antenna shape can seriously impair instrument reception.
Further reading
Product variants assembled with minimum retooling
Modular Automation has used simple engineering ingenuity to develop a new assembly machine for Nastech which has the flexibility to assemble multiple product variants with minimum retooling
Machine combines cam drives with pick and place
Modular Automation of Birmingham has designed and built an assembly machine that combines the use of cam drives with pick and place automation to achieve flexibility with speed.
The main assembly machine is based on a Bodine cam-driven, walking beam machine.
Automatic stations fit the control buttons, switches and a vibro motor from bowl or tape and real feeders.
Further stations on the cam machine fit the battery and SIM card connections and check the button operations.
The 'No faults Forward' principle ensures that rejected sub-assemblies receive no further work after the fault is detected.
The assembly then returns, on the same conveyor, to a pick and place unit for transfer to the test machine.
This performs a radio frequency test that requires the entire test cell to be stationary for the entire 0.25sec duration of the test.
Perfect assemblies are ink jet marked and unloaded.
The use of a cam-driven machine combined with a pallet conveyor system is very unusual.
In the past, the use of cams in a machine with both synchronous and non-synchronous stations would have been unheard of.
However, linking the automatic cells with the LinkLine conveyor allows the inclusion of a buffer zone providing the flexibility needed for non-synchronous manufacture and allow Modular Automation to achieve the 2.5sec cycle time required with only one set of loading stations.
It also provides the flexibility to retro-fit automatic stations, or re-design existing ones, to accommodate model variants or future design changes.
According to William Bourn, Modular Automation's Sales Manager, the opportunity to use cam-driven equipment in future represents a major development for the company.
"The alliance with Bodine provides us with a fast track to the best cam operation system available," he said.
Modular Automation has vast experience at developing innovative assembly systems using a modular approach and trusted technology.
By approaching its business in this practical way it ensures that its systems are realistically priced, effective and utterly reliable.
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