Automating a more encouraging bottom line

Robotics enhance secondary operations, lower labor costs, and increase product consistency which is why they''re paying off.

"Shoot and ship" are considered dirty words in processing. And as processors have been pursuing greater sophistication in their operations to enhance profitability and become more important to customers, the basics are no longer even adequate to survival.

"If the molder of a given product can also offer assembly, decorative capabilities, or other helpful mechanisms to progress the product further toward sale, the customer becomes ever-more dependent on these combined and enhanced services," says Debbie Douglas, founder and managing director of the Douglas Group (St. Louis). Her private investment banking firm, which serves the plastics industry, represents business owners in the sale and purchase of companies. "If the customer can ship more ''as needed'' or store ready goods for the customer, and/or deliver quickly to meet short-term surges in volume, that has substantial value," Douglas adds. "That is likely to remain an advantage in comparison to the offshore competition."

Automation is at the forefront of the move to incorporate more value to the final product, transforming a molding machine into a multitask production cell. Because it handles downstream operations, from assembly, packaging, and labeling to inspecting, verifying, and finishing, efficiently, it makes processors more efficient and therefore competitive.

Proof of the pudding

Automation''s ubiquity is a function of results: increased competitiveness, reduction in labor costs, improved part quality and consistency. A case in point is Trend Technologies Inc. (Chino, CA), which turned to automation to lower prices in response to increased foreign competition.

Last year the processor purchased $100,000 to $200,000 worth of equipment that automated the process of moving front bezels (used for electronic enclosures) from the molding machine to secondary operations. As a result, Trend realized labor savings, saw product quality improve, and now produces more parts in five days than were previously output in seven. "Now everything is incorporated into one continuous flow process," says Dale Behm, VP of Trend''s Plastic Technology Group.

In the end, Trend was able to lower product costs by 30%. At the same time, automation helped Trend meet lean manufacturing objectives, as less movement and space is consumed by processing. "We are not carrying any parts around the facility," Behm notes. "It''s one cell handling molding and secondary operations." Trend, which specializes in producing enclosures for information processing systems, later duplicated the process at its 12 other plants.

Robotics were also integral to a $200,000 automation investment made by moldmaker M.R. Mold and Engineering Corp. (Brea, CA) last year in an effort to speed up production and lower labor costs. Three robots working in conjunction with Charmilles sinker EDMs helped the company double output of molds for liquid silicone injection.

"This allows us to run around the clock on those machines," says Richard Finnie, president. "The automation has allowed us to produce the same amount of sales as four years ago, but with one-third fewer employees."

Getting started

How do processors determine what type of equipment will streamline operations and make them more competitive? Molders are advised to envision the big picture, taking into account the total process from pellet to shipment.

Suppliers, naturally, are ready to help, consultation being a key element of their own value-add. "After review of the project and sometimes the actual production floor if it is an existing process we will put together a concept with budgetary numbers and expected benefits," explains Mark Bamberger, executive VP, CBW Automation (Fort Collins, CO). "We like to start this way to see if it is feasible from a return standpoint."

The customer and supplier will often review parts/applications, establish payback needs, identify options and potential labor savings. If it looks like a good investment, the supplier will go to the next step of doing a formal quotation with more detail and defined objectives. "If it looks like it isn''t a good fit," Bamberger says, "we will look at it from a variety of perspectives and possibly scale the project back to the point where it may not accomplish all of the original objectives but at least gets them on the way to automation."

Suppliers say they can work with molders to implement automation in phases. This allows buyers to use savings from the initial purchase to pay for subsequent automation investments. "The real emphasis needs to be on the total objectives so as to not implement one phase of automation that might preclude the customer from further integration at a later date," Bamberger says. "That is why we take the approach of being an ''automation consultant'' for our customers."

Processors with prior automation experience may not require guidance in demonstrating the justifications for investing. They may, however, need help identifying areas that will produce the best results.

"Automated Assemblies offers plant audits and application reviews that not only review the existing processes but also produce recommendations for automation," Kaplan says. "The processor is best served by preparing a cost analysis of an existing process, including labor costs, material costs, process procedures, scrap rates, functional requirements, facility requirements, and production rates."

This information will become the benchmark that any automation solution will be justified against. "The processor should also commit to be interactive in the pursuit of an automation solution and not be passive," says Norton Kaplan, director of product marketing, Automated Assemblies Corp. (Clinton, MA).

An ounce of prevention

Whenever possible, automation should be incorporated in the upfront planning of a process. However, the automation implementation process usually begins with the identification of a problem related to quality and/or production costs in an existing process, leading to a search for solutions.

"An automation expert should be called in to evaluate the situation and recommend a solution," says Jim Healy, VP, Automation Sales Group at Conair (Pittsburgh). "By looking at the processing situation in its entirety, the specialist can often develop a system that actually goes beyond solving the initial problem."

In some cases, automation is the only way to ensure the viability of a product. "For instance, a custom molder supplying an appliance manufacturer was placing decorative appliques by hand into the molds used to make refrigerator crisper drawers," Healy says. "This operator involvement was extending cycle times and placement repeatability was poor."

As an interim solution, appliques were applied after part molding. But because the appliance manufacturer was making a big marketing push on this new refrigerator line, it was necessary to ramp up production and quality control, Healy says. The solution involved creating work cells built around the molding machines, two Conair beam robots, and a shuttle table for feeding appliques to the robot tooling. "All of the inmold functions were accomplished in less than four seconds, ensuring faster, more repeatable cycle times."

Better than human?

Processors seeking to eliminate human intervention from secondary operations may be wary about how automation will impact their ability to ensure only good parts are packaged. But with improvements in process control and robotic vision systems, suppliers say this is no longer the risk that it once was.

"We have systems that will take two parts of an assembly from a family mold and literally assemble the two parts, inspect them for proper assembly, discharge questionable parts to a secondary checking station, count the good assemblies, and make sure the right amount of assemblies is placed in the box," Bamberger says.

These functions, typically done by operators prior to packaging parts for shipment, are often costly and inaccurate, experts say. Processors are also assured the mold will not be damaged during manufacturing. "Dimensions, features, defects, surface finish, and so on, may all be inspected automatically without regard for human variations such as fatigue and non-objective analysis," Automated Assemblies'' Kaplan says. "Molding process consistency and overall productivity is only available with automation."

Plaspros Inc. (McHenry, IL), a custom injection molder, developed an automated system for inserting electrical pins into a two-cavity tool used for producing pumps, says David Georgi, president and owner. The system worked fine until the firm required a four-cavity machine to accommodate increased volume.

"It would have taken forever to have someone manually load these pins, so it was not cost effective to do with an operator," he explains. "It''s not just one tool, but four to five different tools with different options as far as the number of pins going into the parts." The company purchased automation equipment from Wittmann Inc. (Torrington, CT) to handle the function.

There was a learning curve, Georgi recalls, as workers required training to understand and familiarize themselves with the new equipment. But he says it was worth the wait and investment.

"We have the robots married up to four to five different applications that are similar," Georgi says. "We utilize one operator to run three to four jobs, basically eliminating a person-and-a-half, or about three shifts." He estimates the payback will occur in less than two years. "Be careful, do your homework on the payback," Georgi advises. "Make sure you don''t buy a piece of equipment that costs a lot of money and the payback is too long."

Automation also supports the trend toward systems integration. Other auxiliaries can be added to the work cell and connected with the robot, experts say, such as a combined sprue picker and granulator. "Having the robot control the secondary equipment can improve the overall operation while possibly reducing cycle times, depending on whether operations can be performed within the molding cycle for the process," notes Todd Rains, Wittmann''s national sales manager.

The more demanding the job, the more significant automation can be. Given razor-thin margins, every factor impacts the bottom line.

Greg Valero [email protected]

Equipment suppliers partner to home in on key applications

For many years now, numerous injection molding machine makers have offered, alongside their general purpose machines, special lines dedicated to specific market segments, whether it''s high-speed packaging, optical disks, multicomponent, or micromolding. More recently, they have been getting into bed with automation companies - and in some cases mold makers - to offer solutions tailor-made to specific applications.

Example: Demag Ergotech (as it was then) in Schwaig, Germany, introduced the El-Exis S high-speed hybrid machine in 1998. Now well established in thinwalled packaging applications, the newly named Demag Plastics Group has set itself the target of being the leading global supplier of injection machines for packaging. Last year it appointed its first product manager dedicated to the sector. (It has also appointed managers for automotive, medical and multicomponent machines.)

The new market focus strategy, says CEO Helmar Franz, requires development of more integrated systems, hence DPG is cooperating more with suppliers of peripherals. Franz cites automation company Gosewher Maschinenbau, Warmsen, Germany, with which Demag may develop special part handling systems for packaging. Last year, Demag Ergotech formed a partnership with Swiss mold maker Schottli AG (Diessenhofen), to supply production systems for caps and closures in China.

In the automotive area, Demag is also cooperating with PGAM, Advanced Technologies AG (Georgsmarienhutte, Germany), which has locations in Europe and the U.S., on such systems as textile over-molding for interior trim. PGAM focuses on moldmaking, as well as on development of car bodies and interior trim. It also makes car prototypes.

DPG is not alone in taking this path. Last year, Husky Injection Molding Systems (Bolton, ON), decided to take a more hands-on approach to systems for packaging, where it is already a leader (September 2003 MP/MPI), and then more recently linked up with automation specialist Hekuma (Munich) for inmold labelling systems in selected global regions (December 2003 MP/MPI).

At the same time, Hekuma has partnered with Austrian company Mould & Matic Solutions (Micheldorf), which makes thermoforming and injection molds as well as a variety of handling equipment. They showed a combined system at the Fakuma show in Germany last October, which used Hekuma IML equipment on a Netstal machine making cups, while M&M equipment did downstream packaging into boxes.

Husky is a major supplier of robotic automation itself, but recognizes that specialist applications demand specialist suppliers. Most other injection machine makers think the same way. Says Helmut Eckardt, technical director for process engineering at Battenfeld (Meinerzhagen, Germany): "Battenfeld produces robots of different sizes and complexities for the different targets in injection molding. but whenever a six-axis robot is the right solution for the molder we recommend the robots of our partners."

Companies like Engel (Schwertberg, Austria) and Krauss-Maffei Kunststofftechnik (Munich) are expanding their automation capabilities either internally (Engel developed tray loading systems for production cells making mobile phone cases, to add to its gantry- and side-entry robots) or through acquisition (K-M last year bought high-end factory automation equipment supplier Neureder (Schwaig, Germany)). But they will still work with other automation companies if the application requires it. Even a company like Arburg (Lossburg, Germany), which is gradually building up its capability in part handling with the Multilift range, and which has gone further than most machine suppliers in bringing production of componentry in-house, is unlikely (yet) to take on all downstream production capability.

Ferromatik Milacron, like Demag, has resisted the urge to bring any automation in-house. At its European operation in Malterdingen, Germany, managing director Michael Koch cites a range of automation companies FM works with, depending on application. "We try to stay flexible and adaptable, and that is why we are not getting more intimate with a specific automation company," he says. "For the same reasons it is unlikely that Ferromatik Milacron will do automation itself."

Matt Defosse

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