Manufacturing plastic injection moulded parts at Labone-Castleside has to date always taken the same route;
– Establish the moulding process
– Confirm part quality and capability to the customer specifications
– Run batches of parts unloaded by 3 axis robots using a pick-and-place process
– Delivering these to operators at the end of a conveyor and assembly processes.
A simple system that was flexible enough to deal with the majority of parts.
Parts and customer requirements are now changing to more complex units with additional sub-part over-mould and insert processes that would change the existing manufacturing methods and increase the physical handling and manipulation by operators.
Labone-Castleside have recognised these changes and planned to implement new processes and methods using newly acquired 6-axis robotics fitted to new processes installed this year.
A larger injection unit of 1080T has been installed in our current large unit shop and has been fitted with a new Sepro 6-axis robot capable of multi-function operations; this has been duplicated with a slightly smaller unit on an existing 350T machine.
You can see the robot in action in the attached video
Currently these units will replace the 3-axis robots on a pick-an-place operation, however significant improvement in cycle time and machine utilisation have been identified after the initial change.
For the future a number of parts requiring over-mould and insert moulding are planned to be carried out automatically from part pick, mould loading and final unload. In some cases, palletisation of parts with predetermined packaging can also be considered feasible.
As a company we now believe we have a larger number of options to offer with cost and manufacturing advantages to both our customers and ourselves.
If you’re looking for a world class injection plastics moulder and assembler, we’d love to speak to you about how we can help you achieve your goals,
get in touch.
Recent Comments