FEATURE Robotics & Motion Control y
Where high precision is
required, particularly within hygiene sensitive markets, integrating robots into moulding cells is beneficial
Maintaining moulding continuity during the COVID-19 pandemic
The benefits of automation have never been so obvious as during the COVID-19 pandemic. Here, Sumitomo Demag UK highlights the upwards trend towards automation in plastic processing and how it has become an integral part of moulding processes allowing the industry to adapt to the current crisis
L
ike many manufacturing processes, injection moulding (IM) can benefit considerably from automation. But particularly
in this current climate where non-life- sustaining businesses have had to close their doors, workers are self isolating and supply chain complications and higher demand for medical and infection prevention parts is impacting planned production schedules. The good news is robotics was already
quite commonplace in injection moulding facilities before this health crisis commenced. No longer the preserve of a medical operators with specialist needs, statistics released by the European plastics
‘‘
machinery organisation EUROMAP shows that the number of IM machines sold equipped with robots rose from 18 per cent in 2010 to almost a third towards the end of 2019. Additionally, OPC Unified Architecture (OPC/UA) has been more widely adopted, offering moulders broader connectivity and remote management options, which many operating skeleton workforces may value more now. Nigel Flowers, managing director at injection moulding machinery supplier Sumitomo (SHI) Demag UK comments: “There has been a significant upwards trend towards automation in plastics processing in recent years. Part of this has been driven by demand for more flexible solutions, so the
There’s been a concerted effort,
with companies who were previously competitors forming consortiums to develop a ventilator prototype.
24 June 2020 | Automation ’’
use of six-axis industrial robots in precision moulding especially is certainly more commonplace today. Additionally, the price gap between Cartesian and industrial robots has closed markedly, while at the same time, they’ve become easier to programme and simpler to integrate.” In precision moulding applications,
robots are usually chosen for their range of operation, accuracy, repeatability and cleanliness. Sometimes the customer needs to transfer parts, insert load, apply labels or remove complex parts in non-linear movements. For packaging, robotics is primarily used to make customer applications run faster and more cost- effectively. With take-out times of 0.5 seconds or less, it can sometimes be faster to use a robot to remove parts than to let them fall under gravity.
Coping wi th COVID-19
These are unprecedented times. As cases in the UK rise, self imposed isolation and quarantining will no doubt cause
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