10384 Compact robot cell on injection moulding machine

Initial situation

Maxon is the leading supplier of high-precision drive systems. For over 50 years, everything at Maxon has revolved around customised solutions, quality and innovation.

Continuous process optimisation and automation are an important part of the company's success, increasing efficiency and relieving employees of monotonous tasks.

Maxon was looking for a solution for a complex injection moulding process.

Problem

The injection moulding process was characterised by a high level of employee involvement: The inserts were placed by hand on a preheating plate and then manually placed in the injection moulding machine. After the injection moulding process, the parts had to be removed again by hand

Goals and requirements

The automation solution had to work with the many existing injection moulds and reliably process the delicate parts, which posed a particular challenge.

It also needed to take up as little space as possible. Operation should be modern, intuitive and simple to minimise operator errors and training costs. SPC parts and reject parts as well as the sprue must be ejected separately, and the cycle time of the injection moulding process must not be exceeded. Despite the automation, it should still be possible to work manually with the injection moulding machine.

Solution

Roth Technik impressed with a coherent solution concept that not only fulfils or exceeds all requirements, but also has the smallest footprint with a footprint of approx. 1 EU pallet. This results in the best investment. In an automation project, however, it is not only the technical solution that is important for success, but also the partnership-based, goal-orientated cooperation. At Roth Technik, you can feel the enthusiasm and passion for technology, for clever automation solutions and the positive company spirit. This combination convinced us.

Roth Technik solved the task with a very compact robot cell. An articulated arm robot works in the robot cell, which takes up even less space when mounted on the ceiling. A flexible feeder makes it possible to feed the inserts as bulk material. The robot places the inserts on a heating plate and from there into the injection moulding machine. Finished parts are removed and either output directly as test parts, separated into cavities and placed in small parts boxes or discarded as rejects. The sprue is removed reliably and monitored. The machine is operated via a modern, intuitively designed HMI. The danger zone is protected by a sliding door which, when open, allows manual work on the injection moulding machine at any time.

Result/outcome

Thanks to the automation, we can now manufacture completely unmanned. This means a massive increase in efficiency and productivity, as the system produces without a break.

In addition, the employees have been effectively relieved and can now devote themselves to more exciting activities.