Process stability on agenda at Fanuc’s open house

Energy savings and processing stability drew more than 60 processors and OEM representatives to Fanuc Roboshot’s European headquarters near Stuttgart, Germany to learn more about how its machines can help them to mold better parts.

The manufacturer of injection molding machinery has upgraded its established Roboshot line of presses with a number of new features designed to ease operator use and also offer more stability during processing. With regard to simplified use, new software functions include six numerical displays for all cycle steps—positions, speeds, temperatures, and more. Diagnosis groups now display according to priorities, and freely programmable pages have been added for a processor to enter additional information on, for example, materials, peripheral equipment, and the like. The software updates encompass several graphical displays of all cycle steps with a cursor function for cycle analysis and comparison of the actual cycle with the reference cycle, permitting cycle optimization.

Takeshi (Ted) Oda, president of Fanuc Roboshot Europe GmbH, said that the emphasis of new developments at the company remains energy savings/monitoring and production stability.

During the open house, Fanuc had two machines running, including a 30-ton S-2000i-30B molding the chassis for a wristwatch. The part had an outer diameter of 11mm, a shot weight of 0.89 g, part weight of 0.176 g, and was molded in cycle times of less than 4.5 seconds. A 100-ton Roboshot machine processed thin-wall instrument covers. Fanuc says it installed more than 35,000 of the Roboshot machines between 1984 and 2008. —[email protected]