plate for robotic de-finning, similar to a cookie cutter. “We worked with the engineering
Waupaca Foundry produces four of these 23-lb. gray iron castings in a single vertical molding chamber.
group and designed the robotics and automation into the cell to accommo- date this part,” Walters said. “We also can use it on other parts, but we took our engineering people and did our own automation…to take this pack- age and produce it on that cell using robotics and vacuum tooling.” Engineering teams designed a
robotic vacuum end-effector specifi- cally for the project because existing robotic pick-offs wouldn’t work with the core’s intricacy and need for preci- sion alignment. In addition to lifting the core components, the vacuum robotics placed them on a custom- designed plate for defining and partial assembly. Some human touch was still needed in a portion of the core assem- bly, but using the robotics decreased production time and significantly increased core assembly (and ulti- mately casting) quality. “When you pick up a core, you
traditionally have a person who picks it up. If you can picture it, we have a robot, and on the end of the robot, we have a fixture that uses a vacuum to pick up the core and hold it tight without damaging it,” Walters said. The robot manipulates the core
through the process until vacuum release, when the part is disengaged. “We are removing the process of human hands touching the core and concentrating on automating handling,” Walters said. “Te cores are less exposed to process damage.” By successfully creating precision
core assemblies and using robotic solutions to assemble the components, Waupaca Foundry was able to create a best practice in core production. Te company expects to use this process innovation on equally complicated projects going forward.
ONLINE RESOURCE
Visit
www.moderncasting.com for more photos of Waupaca Foundry’s unique coremaking process.
24 | MODERN CASTING September 2012
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