Industrial Consumable Assembly Machine

Scope

Dial indexing assembly system with purpose to place up to 12 different sizes of inserts into the consumable piece, perform machining on the head, install an o-ring, and package the final product complete with online label printer. Up to 30 different products could be configured with single push-button recipes on the Operator Screen. Three different types of packaging were allowed. The machine included vision inspection, custom o-ring installation station, multi-axis robot pick & place, and a complete conveyor-driven packaging line.

Client automation need

Customer desired to significantly improve on production rates from existing automation system, as well as increased uptime, higher part quality, and automatic packaging. All goals were realized with one machine.

Several improvements were made at the customer's plant in component handling before final processing as a result of McClellans engineers' input during the machine design and debug phase of the project. These included better part quality and supporting handling equipment, and improved blister pack packaging quality.

Technological Challenges:

One-size-fits-all gripper tooling throughout the assemby system for 30 different products and 12 different inserts -- this innovation allowed short set up times between lots.
Picking parts from customer's existing travel trays that presented the parts in numerous geometric patterns.
Magazine feeding and singulating stacks of existing plastic blister packages that were designed for manual assembly.

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