FANUC ‘Genkotsu’ robots The ‘Genkotsu’ (Fist) or ‘Delta’ robot is a parallel-link robot in which the major mechanical axes act on the robot faceplate in parallel rather than in series as with a traditional articulated robot; this allows for both quick and precise movements.
2
Since it’s invention in the early 1980’s, the Delta robot has evolved into an innovative and high-speed solution for a wide range of assembly, picking and material handling applications. With a three-axis Delta robot, each axis is connected directly to the faceplate. The movement of these three axes
(either one or a combination of the three) will move the faceplate in a Cartesian (XYZ) motion. Optionally a fourth axis can be directly connected to the faceplate to add rotation, FANUC Corporation have further developed the Delta robot to incorporate an additional fifth and sixth axis to allow pitch and yaw motions as well. As each axis only needs to accelerate the faceplate and gripper, significantly higher acceleration rates are achieved; this notably reduces cycle times compared to a serial-link articulated robot. Top speeds of 10,000mm/sec are typical for Delta robots. In addition to high speed performance, a parallel-link robot provides improved repeatability at the tool tip; this is well suited to accurate small part assembly processes. Delta robots are typically deployed
on constantly moving, picking and packing lines. Multiple Delta robots can be incorporated into a single packing system capable of processing several hundred parts per minute. When utilising the FANUC integrated iRVision system all the robots can share the visual information from a single camera up-steam of the conveyor. Information entered into the FANUC picking software will determine what percentage of product each robot in the system will handle, this creates efficient load sharing between the robots. Delta robots are not limited to picking and packing applications and can be effectively applied to stand-alone assembly applications. FANUC’s sixaxis Delta robots allow for accurate, highspeed and dextrous assembly of parts up to 6Kg. As the robots are roof mounted above the work area the full working envelope of the robot can be utilised, unlike traditional six-axis robots. FANUC intelligent integrated components such as vision and force sensing can easily be added to the Delta robot making the system more flexible and less reliant on expensive mechanical fixtures and tooling. John Hart Automation & Robotics offers the FANUC M-1iA Delta robot with 0.5Kg payload and the M-3iA Delta robot for payloads up to 6Kg, both sizes are available in 4 and 6 axis variants.
Pictured are two FANUC M-1iA robots equiped with 2D iRVision and parallel-link.
Intelligent robotic automation Leading global robot manufacturers are developing ever increasing intelligent platforms for their range of articulated industrial robots. Systems that can easily handle and assemble complex components, while safely interacting with their human counterparts in a manufacturing environment. This is no more evident than seen in the latest developments from FANUC Corporation and their range of intelligent robots and integrated sensors and software. Until now, accurate and complex component assembly has been a very manual process dictated by the need for human dexterity and sight. Some processes could potentially be automated by implementing dedicated and expensive fixtures and tooling that would be discarded at the end of the product life-cycle.
life-cycle the robots can be re-tasked to further increase their value. The FANUC intelligent solution achieves high reliability as the vision and force sensor are integrated into the robot controller. The mean-timebetweenfailure (MTBF) achieved by the robust robot controller, measured in tens of thousands of hours, is also achieved by the intelligent sensor system as it doesn’t require a separate PC or third party software to operate. Standard sensor setup schedules, process specific control and vision instructions make the intelligent robots easy to program and operate through the FANUC iPendant. FANUC integrated iR-Vision accommodates simple 2D random part, pick and place applications as well as 2.5D and 3D complex de-palletising and bin picking operations. The FANUC
iR-Vision suite is constantly evolving and includes basic vision applications such as 1D/2D bar-code reading, part measurement, error proofing and colour camera applications. The FANUC force sensor range can be applied to standard FANUC robots from 0.5Kg payload up to 250Kg and can be incorporated in to applications such as material removal and polishing; clutch insertion and phase matching; valve, bearing and shaft insertion, and flexible part insertion. The force sensor enables the robot to assemble parts with a fit tolerance of H7/h7. FANUC handling robots are distributed throughout Australia and New Zealand by John Hart Automation & Robotics. John Hart Automation offers stand-alone robots to system integrators as well as full turnkey automation solutions for a wide range of industry sectors.
FANUC intelligent robots with integrated 2D and 3D vision sensors as well as 3D force sensing provide a flexible, accurate assembly platform with six-degree-freedom-of movement that can detect force and torque applied to the end effector in the six components Fx, Fy, Fz, Mx, My and Mz simultaneously. The seamless integration of both vision and force sensor creates a robot that can ‘see’ and ‘feel’, enabling the most demanding mechanical assembly and material removal operations. At the end of the product production
FANUC M-3iA in action equipped with line tracking
3
Sutton Tools: Achieving continued success through ongoing automation
4
As the key player, Australian-owned tooling developers, Sutton Tools, requires no introduction. Since their inception in 1917 they have proven to be great pioneers, adopting and developing new technologies to improve the efficiency of cutting tools and their manufacture, including the latest coating technologies. As part of this ongoing development, Sutton Tools has invested heavily in the use of robotics. Story by Martin Oakman. From an automation prospective, cutting tools are principally long cylindrical components, regardless of whether they end up as drills, taps or milling cutters. As such they can be handled in much the same way as any process proven to benefit from being automated – for example, you wouldn’t imagine tins of beans to be labelled by hand nowadays. This thinking, along with growing competition from outside Australia prompted Sutton Tools to re-evaluate all its key processes and determine which would benefit most from being further automated. As the production bottleneck was manual loading and unloading, this was the first to be addressed. Batch sizes range from 1 to 5,000, with the average being in the order of 500 – 1,000, so there
was much to be gained by freeing up operators to focus on programming rather than loading and unloading. The company has four manufacturing locations: three in Victoria and one in New Zealand. At Thomastown, Victoria, the focus is on HSS tooling such as high performance drills, taps and milling cutters. There is also a small carbide division but most of the carbide tooling is produced at the other plants. The highest volume plants are in Maryborough, Victoria and Kaiapoi, New Zealand, where between them up to 120,000 standard drill bits are produced per day. It’s these plants that employ the vast majority of specialpurpose automated machinery, most of which has been either developed in-house or commissioned as a special.
“What we needed, and set out to achieve over the past six years, was to develop an automated system capable of transporting components from one machine to another using a palletised system” said Phillip Xuereb, Chief Engineering Executive. “As we saw it, the best way to do that was to make use of a robot system, so we embarked on installing a FANUC robot, supplied by John Hart Automation & Robotics. This was adapted to work with an inhouse developed palletising system (basically an aluminium plate with a large number of holes corresponding to the diameter of the tool shank), but sat alongside the machine rather
than being fully integrated.” “Our first applications were the manually loaded machines. We then replaced simple automation, already existing on the machines, with a retrofitted robot. This gave us the ability to move components from one machine to the other via the pallets. It’s an ongoing process where we are looking to replace all manually intensive tasks with automation. When we design a machine, we decide whether or not to use a palletising system and robot as an integral part of the machine.” “Our aim was to do three things: • To eliminate repetitive manual loading • To have a common process which makes the components transportable from one machine to the other • To provide a process which is quick setting and easy to use integrated with the machine so that it becomes operator friendly” “The first exercise we undertook comprised a thread grinding machine and FANUC robot. We found that the productivity of that machine based on the same hours was 40% greater than our previous manual setup. The reasons for this were that it ran more continuously and there was no waste of time between the loading processes. Also, the operator didn’t have to drop another task to attend to the machine,” says Xuereb. Based on that improvement, it wasn’t too difficult to convince the management to continue investment along these lines and retrofit robots to other machines by virtue of productivity. Regarding training, I asked whether operators required special courses to bring them up to speed.
The answer was yes, but Phil was quick to point out that Sutton Tools employed highly trained operators. “We needed to have specialists in robotics positioning and programming and so forth so we sent a number of our people to external training courses.” Therefore, Sutton Tools had to put a fair bit of investment up front but the return was good. Sutton Tools needs to compete with low cost imported products, yet also needed to have the flexibility; therefore they went about using as many of the same type of robots as possible throughout the plant. By adopting this approach, they could move operators and jobs around with relative ease. Today, Sutton Tools has achieved its objective. Productivity has certainly increased, and one robot has now become 25. The company has an ongoing program to automate processes. Any new machinery built for them includes an integrated FANUC robot situated within the working envelope. For example, if a new machine is commissioned, it will include a FANUC robot as standard. A number of ‘special purpose’ CNC
machines have also been built in-house with an integrated robot. These are Sutton Tools own designs for specialist tooling, as such they are not for sale. “Basically, we have standardised on the 6-axis FANUC LRMate systems because we have found them to be very reliable and offer us the flexibility we need”, says Xuereb. The robot control programs are integral with the machine’s CNC controller and programmed by the machine operator as part of the job. They principally work to pick and place each tool using a now standardised Sutton designed palletising system and specially developed gripper systems which are also made in-house. The robot systematically picks a tool blank from the pallet and places it in the grinding machine’s chuck ready for the grinding cycle. It then retrieves the finished ground tool and places it in a second pallet ready for further operations. The robot is typically programmed to pick components for inspection as set intervals and place them in a separate tray.” The pay back is that we have a happier workforce – we haven’t gone
about applying robots to reduce workforce, what we have done is reduce the manual handling. The staff appreciates this as they don’t have to do monotonous jobs like manual loading anymore, leaving them to focus on programming and getting the next job underway. Our people are very good at understanding that we needed to make efficiency changes in order to stay ahead of competition. We practice lean manufacture principles; therefore this was an extension of this philosophy. Part of our brief was to have a quick set up that was operator friendly. So having those in place we’ve had a high acceptance level. Else where, I have seen where processes have been put in a manufacturing operation and not accepted by the workforce so they’ve never been used to their potential.” Regarding the future, Sutton Tools is in discussion with John Hart Automation, to look at the possibility of using a vision system to select components from a basket and load up the initial pallets with the right tooling blanks. At present this is done manually and is very labour-intensive. “Robots are making huge leaps in terms of their technology. They are becoming easier to use and more reliable and are now being augmented with vision systems for selecting grippers, etc. Gone are the days where people are thinking, ‘I don’t want to use a robot, they crash all the time. Today’s robots won’t crash.... mind you it is critical to consider the safety aspects”, says Xuereb. In summary, further automation will result in efficiency gains, production gains and a happier workforce. Source: AMT Magazine (March 2012)
5
Meritor: Creating a safer workplace through automation Established in Australia over 40 years ago, US based Meritor has been highly successful in the assembly of axles for vehicle companies such as Iveco and Kenworth.
6
After recognising the need to improve their production repeatability and reduce OH&S issues, one of their employees researched appropiate companies and recommended working with John Hart Automation & Robotics. David Curwood from Meritor explains, “We were having warranty issues with a particular item which is normally assembled by hand. We noticed an immediate improvement in the manufacture of this item once the automation system was in place.” Originally, operators were required to manually flip the heavy wheel hub over to get access to the bore where bearings and seals are to be inserted; this was a dangerous task and exposed the operators to potential harm. The bearing was dropped into the bore and the seal needed to be manually hammered into position using a handheld punch, once again exposing the operator to strain or injury. This operation also added an additional step to the assembly process as
the hubs needed to be flipped back over in order for the assembly to be completed further down the line. To remove these potential hazards, John Hart Automation supplied a hydraulic press to insert the bearing and seals from below the hub, removing the requirement to flip the hub over as well as the need for the operator to manually insert the seal. The operator now simply loads the bearing and seal onto a spigot, rolls the hub into position, locks it in place and activates the press from a two hand control. The entire process takes ten to fifteen seconds and substantially reduces the risk of injury. Quality is also assured, as the press checks that the seal has been inserted to the correct depth before releasing it from the press area. This is important as the hub will not be flipped in normal operation to check the seal condition. If for any reason the seal does not reach the correct depth, a supervisor is required to release the system from the fault condition by a key override.
The initial system was installed at Meritor over a four day period, the changeover was done from Saturday to Monday and the entire system was running by Wednesday. The new system is currently undergoing an upgrade, outside of the original specifications, to incorporate remote sensing, further improving the overall efficiency of the system. While the automation system was well received, David Curwood says Meritor went to great lengths to explain to employees the reason for the system and how it would benefit the company. “We put groups together and discussed all automation projects among a broad range of people.” This helped to ensure no negative backlash, and also enabled the company to receive as much input as possible into the design of the system. The recent changes cost the company three days of down time, but the benefits far outweighed this cost, making Meritor a safer, more efficient place to work.
Great savings with automation In an age of increasing globalisation and cheap foreign imports, for Australian manufacturers to succeed and prosper they must contain costs, the highest of which is often labour. Previously, many manufacturers viewed automated systems and robotics as expensive and unattainable. Today robots are more versatile and affordable than ever. Investing in an automated robotic solution can be very cost effective and can provide great returns over a relatively short period of time. For the purpose of this example let us consider: • It costs around A$50,000 per year to employ an operator. • In a two shift system annual labour
Parametric programming with John Hart It is common practice to operate robots and peripheral automated equipment using individual programs for each object being handled. Yet this can be expensive and time consuming to program when there are families of similar shaped parts involved. Parametric Programming, is a task
costs total A$100,000. • A turnkey robotic cell complete with in-feed and outfeed conveyors, safety fencing and programming will cost approximately A$150,000*.
* Project cost will vary depending on the cell requirements
Investment $A (000) 300 225 150
$ Break Even
Savings
Robot Payback
75
Looking at the figures we can see just how affordable the robotic solution really is:
0
• The turnkey cell replaces one operator per shift. • The company operates on a two-shift system. • The payback would be just over eighteen months, taking into consideration annual service and maintenance of the robot. • After the payback, the automation equipment is essentially operating free of charge. Additional benefits include: • The prospect of running unmanned
that involves for example, the selection of different size billets from a pallet that is then loaded into a lathe for machining. These can be fast tracked by programming the parameters of the parts into the robot program using a HMI (Human Machine Interface). When calling up the program, the operator simply enters variables such as the part diameter, length and pitch through the HMI touch screen. The robot then calculates exactly where to find each part and how to place it correctly in the lathe.
1
2
3
4
Years
with a “lights out operation” to add an extra third shift, reducing the payback time on the cell. • Reducing inactive time (robots do not take breaks and holidays). • The removal of OH&S issues. • Increasing process quality through the consistent programmable nature of the robot. Automated robotic installations can be used on a large variety of applications, and in this example we have shown that the robotic solution is the right investment decision.
For safety, additional programming can be used to carry out validation on the variables being entered. For example, setting the upper and lower limits on size ranges so that only realistic values may be entered. Touch screens are available in a range of screen sizes, in monochrome and in colour, allowing for a system to be tailor made to meet customer requirements. They can also be used to present installation status reports, graphs, diagnostics and production statistics forming a useful ‘front end’ for any system.
7
Ramtaps: Round the clock manufacturing CLIENT Ramtaps (Harbic Products) PROBLEM Ramtaps have been manufacturing their Australian designed, high quality bathroom fittings for over 70 years. Like all local manufacturing companies, Ramtaps face tough competition from foreign imported products. Ramtaps wanted to improve the process used to manufacture their single lever mixer core bodies, they needed to dramatically increase machine utilisation of an existing Mazak CNC lathe and also decrease the time spent on non-value adding processes.
SOLUTION Equipment: • FANUC M-10iA robot and R30iA controller • JHA&R purpose built pneumatic and vacuum gripper • JHA&R purpose built billet feeder with sorting conveyor • JHA&R purpose built washing and drying system • JHA&R purpose built in-feed racks for product containers, container lids and slip sheets • Finished product exit conveyor • Safety fencing and close-out panels The engineers at JHA&R designed and developed a billet feeder to deliver pre-cut brass billets for loading into the Mazak CNC lathe with the M10iA robot. The billet feeder increased the number of billets that could be processed, unattended, from 400 to 2400. A sorting conveyor attached to the billet feeder separates and orientates the billets for pick up by a pneumatic gripper mounted to the end of the M10iA robot. The M-10iA robot picks and places a product container onto the outfeed conveyor ready to be filled with finished product. A vacuum gripper mounted in a cradle on the base of the robot is picked using the pneumatic gripper. This innovative system has eliminated the need for an expensive robot arm tool changing system. Once the
AUTOMATION & ROBOTICS
CNC MACHINE TOOLS
machine cycle has been completed the M-10iA robot removes the finished mixer core body from the machine. The mixer core body is then held in a custom washing and drying system to remove all contaminants. The mixer core body is then placed into the product container with slip sheets between the layers. The lid is then placed on the container to finish the cycle. The product container then exits the system on the out-feed conveyor. BENEFITS • Reduced cycle time • Increased machine utilisation • Up to 76 hours of unattended production • Automated cleaning and packing of billets • Reduced loading time The benefits to Ramptaps were noticed immediately after installation. Darren Brell, Manufacturing Manager from Ramtaps stated that the “Robot system was able to process two weeks of normal production in four days”. Darren was also impressed that the John Hart Automation & Robotics engineers were able to get “all of the custom system components to perform so well considering it’s a completely new process”. Ramtaps and John Hart Automation worked together to deliver an automated solution that keeps the manufacture of this product in Australia.
CNC LASERS
CAD/CAM SOFTWARE
Melbourne
Sydney
Brisbane
Adelaide
Perth
11 Winterton Rd Clayton, VIC Australia 3168 P +61 3 9542 6262
1/323 Woodpark Rd Smithfield, NSW Australia 2164 P +61 2 9725 4962
6/16 Metroplex Ave Murarrie, QLD Australia 4172 P +61 7 3399 6033
483 Port Rd Croydon, SA Australia 5008 P +61 8 8346 9068
2/32 Robinson Rd Belmont, WA Australia 6104 P +61 8 9277 6100
www.johnhartautomation.com.au
autosales@johnhart.com.au