FEATURE u Materials Handling
Left to right: Flat-spring, metal stamp tape, and spring-clip tape
35cm occupies minimal real-estate in a factory or packing area and the system requires only a standard AC supply and compressed air. The system can handle tapes up to 88mm wide and gives users the flexibility to create pockets in standardised or custom dimensions simply by changing the tooling. The pockets may be simple shapes, such as a square, rectangular, or rounded recess, or may be specifically shaped to fit a particular component or provide certain functions such as protecting vulnerable pins or protrusions. Adaptsys can help customers create custom tooling where required and has successfully developed solutions for various special components such as small electronic modules and electrical connectors. The system is designed to allow tooling to be designed and produced quickly and cost effectively. Changing the tooling to a different tape design in a production setting requires no special skills and takes just a few minutes, enabling users to produce pocket designs in
Adaptsys Reflex II packaging machinery
almost any quantity from low and medium to high volume. In addition, Re-flex II provides quality inspection and traceability of each formed pocket.
Re-flex II can be used with any standard-size input and output reels up to 22” (560mm) in diameter, taking flat tape from the input reel and delivering formed pocketed tape to the output reel. It is also possible to create pocketed tape in real-time to be fed directly into a component taping process for packaging large numbers of components. Here is a simple example. The Re-flex II
supply reel can contain up to 1000 metres of flat tape. In contrast, the same size reel can carry only about 40 metres of pre-formed carrier tape assuming a pocket depth of 6mm. If the taping process operates at 2 metres of parts every minute, the operator needs to change both the supply and output reels every 20 minutes. When feeding the taping process directly from the Re-flex II system, the supply reel only needs to be changed once every eight
hours – equivalent to once per shift, or less - thereby greatly reducing stoppage times and raising the overall productivity of component taping.
EFFICIENCY-BOOSTING OPTION While Re-flex II is intended primarily for feeding pocketed tape directly into a component taper, the new Crosswinder option now enhances owners’ flexibility to produce tape onto reels to be stored for later use. With the Crosswinder, Re-Flex II gives extra flexibility to store more components on a reel by increasing the reel width. Crosswinder neatly winds tape of a standard width, say 12mm, across a 100mm-wide reel to increase the storage capacity by a factor of 8 compared to an ordinary 12mm reel. In the end-customer’s factory, a crosswound reel can supply significantly more parts to a high-speed component taper before needing to be replaced thereby reducing changeovers. The Crosswinder ensures the tape is neatly ordered to unwind smoothly, which helps avoid problems that may otherwise require the taper to stop. Crosswound reels are available in various widths to provide high maximum capacity.
CONCLUSION Tape and reel packaging is a proven solution widely used to protect parts such as electronic components during shipping and present the parts for automated assembly. In fact, the packaging is suited to a wide variety of component types across many industries. The Re-flex II offers a compact and
affordable tape-forming solution, capable of operating at high speeds to synchronise with downstream component-taping equipment. Delivering the flexibility to produce pocketed tape on demand, to custom or standard designs, and in almost any quantity, the equipment is easily able to repay the initial investment within a year.
Adaptsys
www.adaptsys.com.co.uk https://reflex-odt.com/thank-you-metal/
www.irish-manufacturing.com Irish Manufacturing July/August 2021 17
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