printable version

Industrial Automation

Newsletter

Issue 1 Vol. 2

Spring 2009

At Quigg International we take great pride in the way we communicate with our customers. It doesn’t matter if you are new to automation or experienced, we will take whatever time is required to ensure that you have a full understanding and comfort level with the benefits of automation. If your company is currently using automation in its processes, you already understand the advantages your business has gained over your competition.

.

In this edition we are going to discuss robotic applications: spot and MIG welding cells, material handling; pick and place, palletizing and assembly to name a few. We will also take a look at some conveyor and sorter systems that are available.

Robotic Applications: Welding

.

 Automated welding has improvements over manual welding by increasing speed, quality and throughput. Top-notch weldments are easily repeatable with robots. Robot welding automation is also much safer and more cost-effective. We will speak of two of the most common methods: Spot and MIG Welding.

Spot Welding

Spot welding is the most common welding application found in the manufacturing field. Also referred to as resistance welding, it is used to join thin metals together or for heat-treating projects. While it is commonly used in the automotive industry to join sheet metal frames together, the spot welding application has a variety of project uses. Automated spot welding is quick, effective, precise and a economic solution.

Benefits of Robotic Spot Welding Automation:

· Consistency of quality welds

· Repeatability

· Greater Cycle Speed

· Reduction of costs

· Safer Workplace

· More movement flexibility

MIG Welding

.

Gas Metal Arc Welding (GMAW) is frequently referred to as MIG welding. It is a commonly used, high deposition rate welding process. The MIG welding process involves feeding a wire continuously toward the heated weld tip. It is considered a semi-automatic welding process. Fully automated MIG welding offers many advantages.

Benefits of Robotic MIG Welding:

· Capable of all-position welding

· Have higher deposit rates than SMAW

· Need less operator skill

· Longer welds without stopping

· Minimal post weld cleaning

· Produce high quality welds

Page 2

Robotic Applications: Material Handling

Material handling robots are used to move, feed or disengage parts or tools to or from a location, or to transfer parts from one machine to another. A variation of a material handling robot is used to build and unload units on a pallet. Manufacturing companies throughout the world are implementing material handling robots because they are faster, more accurate, efficient and they offer unmatched quality and repeatability.

Some of the Material Handling Processes are:

Pick and Place / Dispensing

Pick and place robot work cells are among the most popular material handling systems. They provide dependable solutions for production lines. Pick and place robot work cells perform tedious, repetitive tasks with ease, speed and accuracy.

Palletizing / Packaging

Palletizing refers to the operation of loading an object such as a corrugated carton onto a pallet or other device in a defined pattern. Depalletizing refers to the operation of unloading the loaded object in the reverse pattern.

Many factories, food processing plants and palletizing plants have automated their application with a palletizing robot. Robotic palletizing technology increases productivity and profitability. Robotic palletizing systems allow for more flexibility to run products for longer periods of time.

A robot control system with a built-in palletizing function makes it possible to load and unload an object without spending a lot of time on teaching. Robotic work cells can be integrated towards any project. With current advancements in end of arm tooling (EOAT), robot palletizing work cells have been introduced to many different manufacturing areas.

Robotic Palletizer technology is quickly growing in popularity for its labor and injury saving attributes. Robotic Palletizers often serve multiple inbound conveyor lanes and are flexible in their pallet build pattern variations. Most often found in higher volume applications where pallet load qualities are shipped.

Parts Transfer / Machine Loading

Part transferring was once done entirely by hand. It was tedious, exacting work for workers. Robots are changing this part of production. Part transfer is faster, more cost-effective, and efficient with customized robots. Robots do not experience fatigue, or strain. They work at the same rate, all the time, which increases production and accuracy.

Recent technological advancements in robot end of arm tooling (EOAT) and vision systems are making robotic part transferring even more attractive to companies.

Robotic Assembly

Assembly robots have expanded production capabilities in the manufacturing world.  The assembly process is faster, more efficient and precise than ever before. Robots have saved workers from tedious and dull assembly line jobs, and increased production and savings in the process. Automated systems provide precise, exact assembly performance. Many of them are equipped with vision technology to aid in production.

Page 3

Material Removal

.

Applications that perfect product surfaces can range from harsh, abrasive methods, such as what is used to smooth steel; to precise, careful spot removal techniques for parts as small as jewellery.

.

Grinding, deburring, drilling, sanding, polishing and painting are common elements of most manufacturing processes.

.

Grinding and Deburring

.

Manual grinding and deburring is tough, dirty,

and noisy work. The metal dust produced is produced is harmful to a worker's eyes and lungs.  Grinding and deburring robots remove excess material from the surface of machined parts/products quickly and efficiently. The process is perfected through automation. The end result  is that the finished product is more accurate and consistent.

.

Drilling

.

Robot Drilling provides the best alternative to the taxing, and often dangerous work of manual drilling. Again a huge improvement in accuracy, repeatability, and speed along with increased productivity and savings.

.

Painting

.

Industrial painting robots transform application appearance, consistency and throughput. A painting robot system increases material savings through greater application efficiency. The precision of a robotic system can generate savings of 20% to 30% in paint or other coatings material costs.

Page 4

     Roller Conveyor Systems

Some examples of roller conveyor systems:

Live Roller Conveyor

.

This general class of conveyor is probably the most common style found in manufacturing and distribution environments. Usually, live roller conveyors use human power or gravity to assist in the movement of items.

.

Belt Driven Live Roller Conveyor (BDLR)

Driven by a common flat belt running underneath the rollers, traditionally in fairly long straight runs.  This style is generally used in transportation in warehouses where divert and accumulation requirements are minimal.  Variations of accumulation styles are available and diverters are usually external and independently driven.

Chain Driven Live Roller Conveyor (CDLR)

Driven by a roller chain that closely couples the rollers mechanically, one to another. Traditionally used with heavy loads where very positive drive is required such as pallet conveyance or handling metal components in mass.

Lineshaft Conveyor

Individual rollers are driven by twisted conveyor belts coupled to a drive shaft that runs down the length of the conveyor frame, typically under slung to one side.  This is very flexible style of conveyor known for it’s economies in motors required, accumulation zone capability and slave driven divert mechanisms. Very well suited to manufacturing work cell automation and divert intensive applications in warehouse and distribution environments.

Electrical Motor Roller Drive Conveyor

This relatively new style uses specialty drive

rollers with self-contained motor.  Usually one drive roller powers several neighbouring passive rollers by the means of connecting belts forming and independent drive zone. This conveyor is extremely well suited where noise, power consumption and changes to conveyor layout are important. Self contained motor controllers are often built within the conveyor frames providing an almost plug and play modularity to the sections.

.

Belt Conveyor Systems

.

Some examples of belt conveyors systems:

.

Belt Conveyor

.

This general class of conveyor has many applications in bulk handling and heavy industries. For lighter package and tote handling, this conveyor is generally used where contact slipping is of concern. Examples of this are incline and decline conveyors and metering belts that tightly control gaps and involve accelerations on the loads. Although a simpler class compared to roller conveyor, many variations are common.

.

Slider Bed Conveyor

 .

A class of belt conveyor that drives a continuous woven flat bed over a flat (usually) metal surface.  Very economical in construction this conveyor is well suited to medium length transport applications without accumulation requirements.

.

Belt on Roller Conveyor

In the same class as the Slider Bed, this belt conveyor runs on a bed of passive rollers that reduce friction and power requirements. Slightly more costly than the Slider Bed, it is usually used to accommodate heavier loads or greater distances with a given horsepower class of motor.

.

Conveyor Belt Curves

A special shaped belt and tapered drive rollers allow a continuous flat surface around (usually) 90 degree curves. Typically found in applications where loads of size variations would make roller curves impractical.

.

Spiral Belt Curve

.

A very specialized class of belt curve that forms a continuous helix shape for close quarter inclines or declines. This method saves a lot of floor space for elevation changes.

Page 5

Sorters

This general class of equipment is typically an array of closely coupled;  high density diverters used to sort cartons / totes to specific transportation lanes / chutes for consolidation and/or shipping functions. There are many different styles within this product class. Here are a just a few for general information.

Popup wheel

This class of sorter is usually based around a Slider Bed conveyor with diverters comprised of arrays of wheels that drive the load off onto a spur when actuated to contact the bottom of the load, slightly above the belts surface.

Steerable wheel

Similar to Popup wheel, the diverter wheels variably skew allowing a greater degree of control and the opportunity for diverts left and right at a diverter location.

Narrow Belt Sorter

Using the same principles as the wheel Popup and Steerable wheel sorters, transport down the length of the sorter is performed by an array of narrow, evenly spaced belts. This allows for a clean division between transport and diverter.

Small Item Sorters

Using the same technologies as their bigger cousins, the small item sorters are in a class of their own.  These machines are well suited to E-distribution applications of like sized small items, such as video cassettes and CDs.  Many styles are available newer innovations are using micro-belt technologies with very high rate capabilities.

Shoe (or Slat) Sorters

Used in high rate carton sorting applications such as loading dock areas of large distribution centers  Named after the sliding ‘pucks’ that guide loads off the main sorter, typically down conveyor lanes or chutes, these machines are the fastest in their class.

Custom Design

Quigg International can design and produce robotic systems that provide the latest in metal cutting techniques, automatic part transfer and robotic load/unload of weld cells, laser and assembly systems.

Our multi-station robotic systems can offer significant cost savings when it comes to; reducing floor space, faster cycle times and reducing the number of operators required for production.

Quigg International can design a complete range of welding systems; from semi-automatic single station machines to fully automated multi-cell lines for welding multiple components including automatic part transfer.

Systems include dedicated and robotic systems for; MIG & resistance welding, laser cutting & welding and ultrasonic systems for plastic welding.

We have experience integrating lasers and robots for; laser cutting stamped and hydroformed components, as well as laser marking devices. Many of the cutting systems utilize robotic YAG laser cells.

Quigg International can design and produce a complete range of assembly systems; from semi-automatic single stations to fully automated multi-cell lines with automatic part transfer.

If the application calls for it, our assembly systems can be equipped with; transfer & conveyor systems, vision and inspection stations, programmable pick & place arms, robotic work cells & systems and even special purpose tooling.

Quigg International can be your one source for all your automation needs.