Case History (July 01, 2002)

To accurately remove the sharp edge of parting lines on SUV exterior trim components during high-volume production, Robotic Production Technology designed and built a robotic cell that can accomplish the trimming job in as little as 32 seconds.

The cell was designed for Moldplas, a division of AP Plasman, located in Windsor, ON. It replaces a manual trimming process for trim that fits around the A, B and C pillars. The longest part, the A pillar trim, has edge surfaces totaling over 10 feet and is trimmed in under 45 seconds, compared to manual trim times of up to 2.5 minutes. Current efforts to reduce the number of edges trimmed may shorten the cycle time even further.

“Now, two operators are all that is needed to process up to 50 parts per hour,” reports George Mitri, AP Plasman program manager.

Vacuum-cup-equipped fixtures secure each of the six different right-hand or left-hand parts, and can be changed over in the cell. An ID system integrated with the fixture’s electrical junction box automatically identifies the fixture, queues up the correct part program and confirms it to the operator in order to avoid mistakes.

Two FANUC M-16i six-axis robots within the cell are tooled with compliant knives that have a special coating developed by RPT for its deflashing systems. The coating is designed to combat the heavy wear factors inherent in an application where parts have a high content of glass fibres.

With the tendency for parts to be gouged when manually trimmed, automating the process can reduce scrap, and improve ergonomic issues associated with manual trimming.

Moldplas had the cell equipped with RPT’s remote diagnostic package for future programming possibilities. The software allows service engineers to remotely troubleshoot controls and software issues, and download program revisions.

Robotic Production Technology (RPT) 248-829-2800