Eye-opening two cell overmolding solution

Boucherville, Que.-based Vision2 International Inc. is a manufacturer of protective eyewear products for various industries, including sports, safety, industrial and military applications. When the company looked for ways to increase its competitiveness, it turned to injection molding machine supplier ENGEL Machinery.

As a supplier of both machinery and automation equipment, ENGEL was capable of providing a fully automated molding cell that would help the company reduce costs and improve cycle times. However, because of the wide variety of eyewear styles manufactured by Vision2, the optical injection molder also needed a cell that had the flexibility for multiple molds.

The company has two manufacturing cells to produce multiple styles of swim goggles. The first cell manufactures the lenses, producing up to six different lens styles. The cell consists of a 100 ton tiebarless machine equipped with an ENGEL ERC 33/1-C robot, which removes the molded lenses from a four-cavity mold using a custom designed end of arm tool (EOAT). (There is a different EOAT for

each different mold, six in total.)

The robot takes the part through a deionizer station to reduce static on the lenses, and positions them at the cutter station for runner removal. The lenses are carried to the part flip station, which rotates the parts and transfers them to the orientation nest.

Once the parts have been reoriented, the robot transfers them to the defogger station, to be coated with an anti-fog solution.

After the process is complete, finished lenses are placed on an outfeed conveyor system. For the second cell, an ERC 44 E-series robot picks up the lens inserts

from the parts tray, and transfers them to another tiebarless injection molding machine for overmolding.

Upon completion of the cycle, the robot positions its de-molding EOAT to retrieve overmolded parts and put in the next set of inserts. The finished parts are then transferred to the deposit position on the outfeed conveyor system.

ENGEL Canada Inc. (Guelph, Ont.); www.engelglobal.com/na 519-836-0220