Feature Loading bays & doors Robots load and unload in quick time
As part of a major investment by pneumatic motion and fluid control specialist Norgren at its Lichfield manufacturing site, Kawasaki Robotics has replaced two aging robots with two Kawasaki RS06L robots for the loading and unloading of brass fittings into a rotary transfer machine
Two new Kawasaki RS06L robots have been installed at Norgren’s Lichfield manufacturing site
T
he new robots allow faster cell tool change times and are able to work more comfortably within target cycle times.
Installed over 13 years ago the origi- nal robots, both Kawasaki, operate between five to seven days a week and three shifts a day in Norgren’s automo- tive/truck air-brake fittings section. Loading and unloading brass fittings
into a rotary transfer machine, with a six seconds cycle time, has seen the robots in virtually continuous opera- tion for the period of installation. “Generally the robots have been reli- able but as expected after 13 years hard labour there have been some joint wear issues,” explains Mark Clark, manufacturing engineer at Norgren. “Although Kawasaki recently gave the
transport resources but do not generally consider the capabilities of the warehouse to load the vehicles. The Despatch Smoothing option enables companies to balance the needs of logistics and warehousing operations by optimising workflows that improve efficiency by ensuring that all available resources are being used effectively. The routing and scheduling optimisation software, for example, makes it possible to plan the optimised loads for despatch in a way that enables the warehouse to easily cope with the demand. The software does this by controlling the profile of the loads prepared for despatch from the warehouse and automating the scheduling of vehicles, so that departures within a given period are achievable using the available warehouse resources – people, loading bays and equipment. This Despatch Smoothing functionality is said to help optimise the route schedules in such a way that these available warehouse resources are not overburdened while maintaining customer service excellence. “In many of today’s logistics operations, transport
and warehousing functions are inter-dependent,” explains Phil Ingham, Paragon support director. “If the transport scheduling fails to take account of warehouse constraints, the net result can be late despatch and late delivery. The new feature helps address this issue so good customer service is maintained.” Paragon Software Systems T: 01306 732600
www.paragonrouting.com
Enter 356 S8
Software smooths out warehouse bottlenecks P
robots ‘a clean bill of health’ for another year, investment by Norgren, in the automotive fittings section, made this a good replacement oppor- tunity to upgrade interface electronics and remove risks of obsolescence.” The new Kawasaki RS robots load and unload brass fittings to two rotary transfer machines which have been moved to new bays in the plant. The cells are programmed to produce up to 100 variants of fitting in batches. Brass stampings enter the cell, ran- domly positioned, on a conveyor belt. A vision camera over the conveyor belt pick up point, illuminated by a struc- tured light source, provides the robot with co-ordinates to pick the compo- nent correctly. The robot has a double gripper and moves to the transfer machine load point, removes a fin- ished machined fitting and loads the un-machined fitting.
aragon Software Systems has added a ‘Despatch Smoothing’ feature to its transport routing and scheduling software to avoid bottlenecks in warehouse despatch. Transport plans focus on meeting customer demands with available
The complete machine cycle is achieved in six seconds. “The new robots are quicker – they work well within the machine cycle time and pre- sent the part to the machine before its cycle is finished and that’s what we want,” continues Clark. “In addition the old robots had a shorter reach which meant they needed to be moved, on a slide fixture, away from the trans- fer machine to facilitate tool setup. This had a potential to introduce inac- curacies and effectively slowed down tool changes – this process isn’t neces- sary now as the new Kawasaki RS06L has a longer reach. So we now have faster tool changes and zero risk of the robot being out of position. “We’ve received excellent support from Kawasaki – moving a transfer line is complex and the company worked around us well when we were able to make the system available.”
Kawasaki Robotics T: 01925 713000
www.kawasakirobot.co.uk Enter 355
JANUARY 2012 Materials Handling & Logistics
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48