NPE 2006 Showcase: Automation

It’s very tough to predict what will happen in the North American molding business, but one thing’s absolutely certain: The future is automated.Automation is essential to being competitive in a developed economy where the majority of the work is at the high end of high tech, and low-end work is . . . oh, you know where.

Responding to this pressure, the automation supply side unleashed a bevy of new tech at NPE. Machine companies’ booths were running over with good automation ideas, and hundreds more were in smaller booths in every hall. We don’t mean only new models of robots, either.

Oh yes, there were plenty of new ‘bots, but there seemed to be even more new grippers and other EOAT tech. Much of it is aiming at flexibility, which in the case of robots means being able to use one ‘bot on multiple applications. And like the EOAT, the robots are ever more adaptable to the job, including the six-(and more)-axis industrial type. Whirr . . . click . . . here we go.

ATS

EOAT’s great strides were evident when we found the K-Hand from ATS. It’s a grip unit made directly from the CAD data of the part using SLS prototyping tech. Complex? Expensive? Including design, delivery is five days, and ATS says it’s a “fraction the cost of a traditional custom EOAT.” At the show, we saw a “nest” for a mobile phone frame with precious little grip surface, a ring and sprue combo, an ID gripper, and various finger grippers, including one for a soccer ball. Well, you can’t use your hands, right?

Automated Assemblies

New Raptor Vision software illustrates the trend to incorporating vision systems in robotics and how simplifying the software is making all this performance easier to use. It displays the current inspection and four failures for up to four ruggedized and sealed cameras. It also integrates with an IML/IMD workcell or a Thinwall Packaging System.

Dynamic Conveyor

Conveyors are doing a lot more than moving parts from here to there. Dynamic Conveyor, besides the Split Belt Conveyor and Work Zone Module we showed you in June IMM, had a new Overhead Fan Module to cool small/light parts without blowing them away.

A neat system of sidewall brushes in DynaCon’s Small Part Containment system keeps small and bio parts from wedging into the sides.

Fanuc

Fanuc, which became prominent largely on the strength of its articulated painting robots, showed its 12th-generation painter, the P-250iA/15, along with the new R-J3iC Control. Motion is enhanced, as are acceleration and operations at high speed across a large work envelope.

The same control was on the new R-2000iB multipurpose intelligent robot, which handles assembly, welding, part transfer, material removal, and loading, and is slim to work in tight spaces.

HFA Conveyors/Automation Systems

HFA’s U-Slide underpress product chute installs easier than the cardboard ones you made in-house, and it’s constructed for low maintenance.

The company’s boxfill line—configurable to fit—works without compressed air, and includes digital controls and a database as part of its control panel.

Hyrobotics

The new Top IV series of sprue and parts picking robots from Hyrobotics is that line’s fourth generation, offering improved controls and adding higher speed, slim design, and a handheld control with a magnetic base for the butterfingered. Takeout cycle is .7 second and the interface box is heat-shielded and affixed to the robot body to save space.

Kawaguchi

Kawaguchi America was showing its K-cut 520 four-axis gate-cutting robot, which sorts different products automatically using programmed index positioning. Its tilting chuck inclines 90° to put parts horizontally on a template or frame for cutting—especially useful with soft/unstable parts.

Kuka

Kuka’s new Jet Robot combines the flexibility of its six axes with exceptional reach because it’s mounted on a rail. The linear axis is very fast, so the Jet can serve a number of machines in a row. Two robots can be on one axis. To make such power easy to use, Kuka says its new Smart GUI (graphical user interface) Plastics Software, which works on all of its ‘bots, is as simple as the programming for traditional linear robots.

MAC Automation Concepts

The new tray filling/stacking system from MAC was on show as promised. Vertical stacking saves floor space and a tray can be indexed in as little as 3 seconds, unattended. MAC’s Airveyor systems, also on show, use air instead of belts and pulleys to move parts. And if you’re not the vertical type, MAC’s Horizontal Stack includes automated controls as standard and upgrades easily.

Motoman

“The Snake,” Motoman’s new IA20 seven-axis robot, is nicknamed for its flexibility in tight spaces. It stands vertically in 1 ft2 of floor space, or straightens horizontally about 2 ft off the floor. Gymnastics aside, it is floor-, ceiling-, wall-, incline-, or machine-mountable, with a 20-kg (44.1-lb) payload and .1-mm (.004-inch) repeatability.

The new, eerily humanoid DA20 dual-arm robot offers 13 axes of motion, six per arm plus base rotation, and the same payload and repeatability as The Snake.

QC Industries

Moving heavy loads in tight quarters is no problem. The new Series 400 line of conveyors is low profile, has a load capacity of 1000 lb, and moves fast. You can configure it up to 60 inches wide and 100 ft long using center- or end-drive, and multiple bands can run different parts simultaneously on one conveyor.

Ranger Automation Systems

High-speed stack molds need fast unloading, and Ranger Automation has new side-entry and top-entry part handling all-servo robots that can go as fast as 5 seconds for the overall cycle. They also can be fitted for multicavity IML and Ranger says they use a third less press-side space and a third less of your money than their competition.

RPT (Robotic Production Technology)

RPT introduced the FLACS II Flexible Laser Cutting System based on the second-generation RoboCut 2 A600 laser robot with 100-600W CO2 lasers. RPT’s CEO Chuck Russo says this is double the power and cutting speeds of previous systems.

RPT’s new RoboTrim RT-500 router trimmer was also on show, using a riser-mounted robot and rotating servo table to handle larger parts.

Sailor Automation

Good vibrations? Not in a robot, says Sailor Automation; vibration equals errors and mold damage. So, its new RZ-VE 3/5-axes full servo robots have “vibration suppression control” using continuous feedback and compensation. There’s a 6.5-inch or optional 12-inch touch-screen handheld pendant control, and “My Program” lets you make up programs on the shop floor without computer programming language.

SAS

The new Tri-Finger Gripper (TFG) for spherical objects solves a perennial problem. The company’s new Programmable EOAT solves several at once. Its four independent component holders can be programmed to move while the robot cycles to any of 28 separate locations. At the show it picked up four very different parts and positioned them precisely. Family molds, perhaps?

Stäubli

Industrial robotics supplier Stäubli partnered with Boy Machines on a MasterCell production cell that showed how much a six-axis robot can do in limited space. A partnership with Hahn Automation yields a modular automation cell based on a Stäubli TX90 six-axis robot. One self-contained automated production module takes little press-side space and adding modules makes a multifunctional production line appear.

Wittmann


The RFID-based EOAT recognition added to R7 controls automatically eliminates mistaken tool identity during changes by verifying that the tool is correct and calling up the correct robot sequence. Wittmann also showed its new 7-Series servo robots for automating stack molds (400-1000-ton presses), and the new W 723 CS3 servo robot series that works on machines up to 275 tons under low ceilings.

Yushin

The SXA-800III side-entry robot Yushin showed aims at high-speed, thin-wall apps in presses from 450-850 tons, packaging primarily. High-power servos on the kick and traverse mean takeout as fast as 1.1 seconds. Yushin also showed how the two-stage telescopic arm of its compact two-axis SVR-B50 could place inserts and take parts out quickly—dry cycle being 1.58 seconds.