Product category:
Robotics, Handling and Storage
News Release from: TM Robotics (Europe) | Subject: Scara robots
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial
Team on 10 October 2003
Robots speed through pneumatic fitting
production
A major UK manufacturer is being rewarded with increased output and profitability in pneumatic fitting (valve) production after installing three Scara robots from TM Robotics.
A major UK manufacturer is being rewarded with increased output and profitability in pneumatic fitting (valve) production after installing three Scara robots from TM Robotics Conventional automation can be an unattractive proposition to companies manufacturing relatively small batch sizes with frequent changeover periods
This article was originally published on Engineeringtalk on 10 Nov 2000 at 8.00am (UK)
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Europe-specific developments for SCARA robots
TM Robotics has released a new Profibus system, aimed at the European market, which operates with its existing range of SCARA robots, and has expanded its European distribution
TM Robotics has helped one such company by automating its assembly process with SR-654-HSP Scaras.
The Scaras have allowed an assembly cycle time of just 7.8s, which is 4.2s faster than the manual method.
Combined with minimum downtime, by ensuring a quick changeover period between product variants, this provides a very favourable payback.
Changeover efficiency is achieved using a PC containing all component information.
The result is an average "chip to chip" changeover time of just 15min.
"The process being automated was quite complex even before considering product variations and changeover periods", explained Nigel Smith, Managing Director of TM Robotics.
First, a vision system conducts an automatic check on the fitting body and Scara 1 inserts a prelubricated air-ring and places the parts on a collet.
Scara 2 then places a swivel nut into a "nest" before positioning an air ring on top.
A pneumatic ram cylinder is then lowered onto the two parts to swage them to shape.
Finally, Scara 3 performs a pressure decay test on the assembly and checks for the presence of the air ring.
A fibre optic sensor then verifies the presence of the collet.
Then, the system places the parts in one of four output trays, continuously counting the number being processed.
Scara robots offer parallel processing for smooth, fast motion combined with an extremely sophisticated set of control instructions to suit all applications.
They offer traversing rates of 300mm in 0.63s, carrying a 2kg payload; with accuracy provided by +/-0.02mm repeatability, and the ability to cope with 240 product variants, consisting of at least five components.
The robot's reinforced arm can handle up to 20kg at half-speed, or 10kg at full speed. Request a free brochure from TM Robotics (Europe) ...
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