Final inspection of stainless steel nipples

Year of realisation

2019

Number of pieces delivered

Industry

Metal fabrication, Automotive

Implementation time

35 - 45 CW

Cycle time

5s/pc

Estimate budget

Cat. 200k - 250k EUR

Automated operations

Handling, Measuring, Cleaning, Optical inspection, Sorting

Technical standard

Fanuc, Keyence, Siemens, Festo, Schunk

Motivation for automation

The customer specializes in machining high-precision parts in stainless steel, steel and aluminum. Due to the customer's focus on the automotive and aerospace sectors, particular emphasis is placed on the quality of the goods supplied. Due to the enormous production volume and the shortage of workers on the market, full automation of the process was introduced. With a strong vision to expand the product range and the need to respond to turbulent changes in the future, the customer opted for automation in the form of an HXG platform, which will enable them to respond to change better than a single-purpose machine.

Project description.

The subject of the implementation was the development and delivery of equipment for 100% output inspection of turned parts. The main parameters to be checked are overall length, notch diameters and checking the internal diameter with a caliper.

In terms of the customer's needs, the equipment was designed on the HXG platform - a reconfigurable robotic platform in configuration:

HXG Core - Fanuc (centre) with dedicated gripper
Module 1 - Input pallet tray
Module 2 - Input pallet tray
Module 3 - Inner diameter caliper inspection station with blow through
Module 4 - Optical measurement of parts under rotation
Module 5 - Output box OK
Module 6 - Output box NOK

Process description:

The parts are oriented into pallet trays compatible with the HXG pallet module
The robot takes 5 pieces of inspected parts at a time into the gripper
The robot cleans the parts with compressed air while checking the inner diameter with a caliper
Robot places parts in the station for non-contact length and diameter measurement (+-0.005mm)
The checked parts are sorted into an OK box and then, depending on the type of defect, into one of 6 NOK boxes.
The device collects data and communicates with the parent ERP system