Insert Moulding Cell

Solution

The automation cell feeds and places inserts into customer’s mould machine. The moulded assemblies are then unloaded into a cooling/test station before being loaded into outfeed boxes.

Electrical Contact Feeder

Electrical contacts are manually loaded into vibratory hopper which feeds into a vibratory bowl feeder. The bowl feeder orientates and feeds the parts into a linear out feed single file, pins down on track. 2 electrical contacts are separated at the end of the linear track in a pneumatic escapement for collection by the load robot. A vision sensor is mounted above the escapement to inspect for bent pins once parts have been picked.

Metal Insert Feeder (Metal moulded part)

Metal inserts are manually loaded into vibratory hopper which feeds into a vibratory bowl feeder. The bowl feeder is tooled to orientate and feed the inserts into a linear out feed single file, end to end, flat face angled away from bowl at 28.7°. Four metal inserts are separated at the end of the linear track in an electric escapement for collection by the load robot.

Load Robot

A load robot is mounted with EOAT capable of picking 4 electrical contacts and 4 metal inserts. A vision sensor is also mounted on the tooling to inspect the mould tool after parts have been placed.

Unload Robot

An unload robot is mounted with EOAT capable of picking moulded parts from the mould machine and placing into the cooling/test station, picking tested parts from the cooling/test station, and moving completed part boxes on the outfeed conveyor.

Test/Cooling Station

The test/cooling station consists of a 12-station indexer, 7 of which are cooling stations, and the other 5 are for specific operations.
1 station is for loading/unloading parts, 1 station is for inspecting heights of pins, 1 station is for performing a continuity test, 1 station is for dot marking good parts, and the final station is spare.

There are 3 chutes mounted to the station which take parts to the outside of the cell. The chutes are for rejects, QC checks and startup parts.

Outfeed Conveyor

The outfeed conveyor has 2 lanes, one for empty boxes to be loaded, one for completed parts to be unloaded.