Dunkermotoren, an Ametek brand, has been developing and producing drive solutions from one to 5,000 watts output power for more than 70 years. The majority of drive components are manufactured at the company's headquarters in Bonndorf in the Black Forest. The consistent automation of processes is of great importance for the competitiveness and quality of the products. Automated end shield machining has now been implemented with EGS Automation.

Before automation, the end shields at Dunkermotoren were processed in five work steps, in each of which they were inserted into a machine, removed again after processing and transported manually to the next work step. The overall process was therefore "difficult to plan and required a lot of manpower," says Mustafa Koyun, Manager Segment GP Production Parts at Dunkermotoren. Two end shield sizes are machined in a total of ten variants. The machining process includes the drilling of holes and threads as well as the machining of the internal and external fit. Depending on the variant, an additional recess must be turned.

Robot-based automation

Before processing, the raw parts are placed as bulk material in portable mesh containers, from where they are poured into a parts bunker by an operator. A conveyor system with pre-separation brings them into the detection area of a Keyence 3D camera, which recognizes the position and radial orientation of the blanks and transmits the gripping position to the first robot. A six-axis Yaskawa GP7 with a reach of around 900 millimeters and a payload of seven kilograms is used. It picks up the unsorted parts and transfers them to a transfer system, where they pass through three thread forming devices on workpiece carriers; threads with different hole patterns and sizes are produced here. After the workpiece carriers return to the first robot via the transfer system, they are turned and transferred to the transfer shuttle at the input of an Index-ABC lathe. This takes over the variant-dependent machining operations. Most of the time is spent on the machine during retooling. "Thanks to automation, this is done in less than five minutes," says Koyun.

Once processing is complete, the second robot, also a Yaskawa GP7, places the finished parts in washing baskets in which they are transported to the cleaning system. A changing station ensures that the baskets can be removed as and when an operator is available without interrupting the process.

Flexibility for production peaks

The system runs completely autonomously for up to three hours. It only takes a few minutes to insert new raw parts and remove the finished parts. Thanks to the reduced personnel deployment, an additional shift to cover short-term production peaks is now possible without any problems. The cycle time is between 15 and 35 seconds, depending on the variant, and the output is therefore between 800 and 1,900 parts per shift.