With the help of two Fanuc robots, the corresponding pick tool and the S1500F PLC controller from Siemens, 60 variants with different part geometries can be processed. As the number of parts to be produced is very high, the customer has ordered two identical work cells with the designation MPP242387 with a floor area of 22 square meters and a working height of 3.50 meters.

The pressed indexable inserts are placed on a conveyor belt that feeds the six-axis Fanuc LR Mate 200iD robot inside the cell. A workpiece is made available every four seconds. The robot is equipped with a magnetic gripper and a pick tool as special additional software. It recognizes the workpiece on the moving conveyor belt and picks it up with its magnetic gripper using the vision line tracking method before placing it on one of two ceramic plates at the staging area. The ceramic plates are stored on plastic trays. This solution can be used flexibly and can therefore be individually adapted to the respective requirements.

Once the worker has taught the robot the workpiece contour and the pick-up and deposit positions, it automatically recognizes the green parts.

A new variant can be taught in with just three positions. For this purpose, the system has an enabling switch that enables ergonomic set-up in manual mode with the safety function bypassed. To make teach-in easier, the possible positions are visually displayed on the operating panel of the PLC control system. The Siemens control system automatically calculates all subsequent storage positions from the allocation plan. Once both ceramic plates have been loaded, they move to the next station.

However, before the robot can load the ceramic plates in the manner described, its larger Fanuc brother, the M-710iC/50, has the task of first preparing the plastic trays on which they are stored and then the ceramic plates. It is equipped with different grippers for this purpose. Its 2050 millimeter long gripper arm can lift up to 50 kilograms. There are two loading positions at the rear of the work cell. On the one hand, these consist of two shafts for the ceramic plates, 20 of which are stacked on top of each other. Secondly, there are two chutes for the plastic trays, ten of which are stacked on top of each other.

The robot picks up a plastic tray, takes it to a special test stand and then places it on the staging area.

He then grabs the first of two ceramic plates, which must first pass the endurance test. To do this, he takes them to a second test station, where they are tested for fragility with a defined force in the center. The plates are then placed on the plastic tray and each is loaded with the green bodies. Once both ceramic plates have been loaded, the robot picks up the plastic tray again to lift it onto the transport trolley provided.

The transport trolley is fully loaded with ten trays. The worker then pulls it out of the work cell to push it on to the next system. This is a depalletizing cell from MartinMechanic, which empties the transport trolley piece by piece. The ceramic plates loaded with the green bodies are placed on the furnace belt and pushed into the sintering furnace. dsc