ROBOTICS
FLEXIBLE TRANSFER SYSTEM BOOSTS PRODUCTION QUANTITY AND QUALITY
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Yamaha Robotics Factory Automation section has successfully helped a customer drive up productivity and quality by changing the way electronic assemblies are transferred between production processes.
uilding electronic assemblies using automated processes can maintain a consistent line rate as circuit boards are assembled, inspected, and tested before packaging and shipping. If production needs to be increased, the usual approach is to install faster equipment or more assembly lines, which can demand significant financial investment and factory floorspace.
However there can be another way, as one Yamaha customer discovered, by focusing on how built-up assemblies are presented for end-of-line inspection. In this instance, the customer’s production department had set up two circular indexing tables – a proven, accurate solution for workpiece transport, familiar to generations of production engineers - to move electronic assemblies through a sequence of end-of-line quality controls. These controls include an electrical test that requires
powering-up the boards, which takes a longer cycle time than other processes in the sequence. Figure 1 shows how the engineers arranged to handle the electrical testing offline to avoid slowing production, using a SCARA positioned between the two indexing tables. The SCARA loads the boards one at a time from the first table into offline testing stations and moves tested boards to the second table to complete the inspection sequence.
PRODUCTION BOTTLENECK
As figure 1 shows, three offline stations operate in parallel to ensure the aggregate test cycle time matches the speed of the indexing tables. The fixed, sequential nature of the indexing prevents testing in parallel directly on the tables. On the other hand, unloading, testing, and reloading exposes units to the risk of damage during handling, which can impair quality.
When the production team sought to increase output, to meet growing market demand for the company’s products, this offline testing became a bottleneck that needed to be addressed. The engineers first considered the obvious option, to increase capacity by using larger index tables that can handle bigger pallets containing multiple boards instead of one. In practice, indexing with multi-unit pallets is difficult to adjust and the units must still be moved into offline testing. They decided to find a solution to increase production output as well as improving quality by preventing damage to the boards such as scratches that can occur as they are loaded and unloaded from offline testing.
Figure 1. Inspection and test using indexing tables is complex and difficult to scale. 24
THE SEARCH FOR A SOLUTION Tatsuro Katakura, sales general manager at Yamaha Robotics FA Section, takes up the story. “The team approached Yamaha at a trade show after seeing our booth demonstration featuring the LCMR200 flexible transfer system, including the traversing unit for creating branches within production lines. They saw the speed and flexibility they needed, especially with the traversing unit that makes it possible to perform the entire electrical testing inline. They were excited at the opportunity to increase throughput and overcome their handling challenges all at the same time.” The LCMR200 system (figure 2) is powered with linear motors, which are fast, quiet, and extremely flexible. The modules let factory designers build
Autumn2025 UKManufacturing
Figure 2. The LCMR200 sliders can carry up to 30kg with high speed and positional accuracy.
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