What challenge were you looking to overcome?
Being able to have one operator run two molding machines while the robot removes gating and flash/parting line material. As well as eliminate the need for pre-machining operations in the CNC.
What is the process to solve the challenge?
The cell would have to have the ability to handle castings and remove the gating material from the castings, which sometimes weigh over 100lbs. We needed to have the ability to remove excess flash or material at the parting line and remove any raw material that could cause interference in the CNC fixture.
What is the solution you came up with?
Our engineering team designed, built, and integrated a robotic cell that works with the operator casting the parts. Using a FANUC Robot, parts are picked from a presenting table/fixture via a custom-designed end effector. The robot then runs through a program to remove gating material with a 26” circular saw blade, and excess flash is removed via end mill, then presented back to the operator.
What are the results you have seen since implementing the solution?
The cell has been able to process parts through and minimize the amount of grinding that would be done in the finishing process, with minimal operator effort. It also saves the number of times these parts have to be handled prior to being received by our machine shop.
It also gives our machine shop more consistent castings for machining, minimizing pre-machining work that would need to be done. They can know what to expect for raw material.
This also takes away the physical burden on operators, as well as the risk of injury, that would be present if we were still removing material by manually feeding castings through vertical bands saws. Operators not having to try to handle these large, hot, and heavy castings was one of our top priorities.