Ultrasonic Welding System.
Plug caps and bodies, are ultrasonically welded to form a single assembly by this Aylesbury Automation production cell. Two vibratory bowl feeders and linear drivers feed the parts into the machine. The bowls and linear tracks have been tooled to orientate the parts into the correct position to be picked up by a DENSO HS-45352G robot supplied by AA Robotics. The inherent flexibility in the design of the machine means that different, yet similar components, which incorporate changes in the shape of plug and socket body, can be accommodated very easily using interchangeable bowl tops and linear feeder tracks. The DENSO robot presents the parts to a Branson ultrasonic welder, and following that operation a stamp is applied to some of the caps. A quality assurance, tensile (pull) test is made on selected products and the frequency of this test is controlled by the customer, from the DENSO robot’s Teach Pendant which also acts as the machines HMI.
There is no PLC in the production cell, all the machines functions are coordinated by the multi tasking DENSO robot controller using Devicenet I/O , generating a considerable cost saving. Six background tasks operate to control 128 I/O points and all status and error messages are shown on the robot HMI.
System Features:
A complete robotic production cell solution has been delivered to Deutsch by automation specialist Aylesbury Automation Limited. The DENSO robot based machine has been introduced as a result of increasing product demand. It assembles a range of similar, electrical plugs and sockets and produces one complete part every six seconds.
Deutsch Limited, a specialist manufacturer of interconnection equipment for harsh environments, required a flexible solution to match its process requirements, at its manufacturing plant at St Leonards on Sea. By replacing a conventional rotary table, with a DENSO robot, when product changes demand, Deutsch are able to reprogramme the machine instead of investing in new tooling. Robots in manufacturing require shorter lead times than conventional solutions with less mechanical parts requiring change when lines and processes are altered.
Deutsch have been using a robot for some time in the manufacture of products but, encouraged by the low capital cost of the Aylesbury Automation solution, the company is now exploring other processes which might benefit from DENSO robotic solutions.