Forming: Novaxion

Swabbing robots reinforced with experience

Over the past 15 years, Novaxion France has successfully installed 100 swabbing robots around the world. Frédéric Nio* explains the company’s recent changes made in partnership with the Rondot group.

Novaxion � swabbing robot.

Recent integration with the Rondot group has provided expanded manufacturing facilities for Novaxion. In addition, several management changes have been implemented to better serve and respond to the demand of customers.

In April 2021, Mr Nio was named the company’s Managing Director. Having worked as a Senior Manager at Rondot for six years, his association with the glass industry extends over two decades. Mr Nio’s experience will facilitate the company’s integration within the group and its development of sales.

Swabbing smartly

Novaxion specialises in robotics technologies for the glass industry, offering solutions for the automatic swabbing of blank moulds and neck rings on IS machines. Innovative developments, an individual approach to each customer, along with professional engineering and management, are among the qualities that have positioned the company as a specialist in the industry over the last 15 years.

In 2005, Novaxion decided to integrate a reliable industrial model of robot from Fanuc, a global manufacturer of factory automation, thereby adding an important example of automation to the production of glass containers.

Initially, the company offered gathering robots for the handcraft and semiautomatic production of glassware but in 2008, a high-performance swabbing robot was introduced to apply a specially engineered swabbing spray to the moulds.

The decision was taken to ‘smartly’ spray the lubricant on to the cavity of the mould, an approach recognised as the ultimate solution to offer both neck ring and mould swabbing. All other existing carbon sooting or swabbing tool management solutions required a manual swab to the neck ring. Novaxion’s solution provides effective and independent lubrication of the blank moulds and neck rings using a dedicated arm and nozzle.

Under air pressure, the swabbing lubricant (oil) is sprayed inside the mould while it’s closed, ensuring the even distribution of a thin film of lubricant. This solution results from an extensive and focused development of the spraying tool, specific nozzle studies and spraying profiles, combined with lubricants and their behaviour. As a result, the pattern of lubrication during automatic mould swabbing can be customised specifically to each production or cavity design.

Automation and lubrication

The swab motion is fully controlled and monitored by the robot control unit, in terms of position and speed. Motion synchronisation is triggered by the IS forming control system.

The swabbing robot is fully automated and all parameters can be configured for each section individually. This means that each section can have a different swabbing profile, depending on the ware produced (e.g. multi gob feature). The robot is quickly and easily set for a production type and does not use a learning sequence.

Swabbing cycles

There are several swabbing modes that can be combined and selected by the operator, including normal and on-thefly.

In the normal swabbing process, the blank mould and neck ring lubrication mode, when combined, will require one ‘section cycle’ and consequently,

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� Typical spraying pattern, equally distributed on the mould walls.

The spaying nozzle

� extension uses a hollow

cone spray.

one section reject. This combined mode provides both swabbing moulds and swabbing ‘on’ and ‘inside’ the neck ring. The special design of the spray nozzle produces a hollow shape cone so the oil doesn’t contaminate the plunger.

With the on-the-fly swabbing process, it is important to highlight that the Novaxion robot alone can provide moulds close ‘on-the-fly’ lubrication. This method improves the process, its efficiency and the end result.

The thin layer of lubricant applied to the moulds will deliver no reject and will not require a section to be stopped during swabbing. This reduces the number of defects and oil consumption, as well as extending the mould’s lifetime and allows for a better pack-to-melt ratio.

Health and safety

A multi-level safety system covers the operation of the robot along the IS machine, thus considerably reducing the risk of injury to operators. Virtual safety barriers offer three safety zones with different safety behaviours of the robot. The robot complies with the CE Machine Directive.

Human impact

The swabbing robot uses much less lubricant than traditional methods (approx. 75% less). Less lubricant and automatic swabbing generates less fumes, thus keeping the operator away from the area of swabbing, preserving health and improving the local working environment.

The swabbing robot will free the operator from repetitive and dangerous tasks, allowing more time to focus on bottle making supervision and action. This is where the operator’s added value and knowledge are important, including the determination of bottle shape and dimensions, weight, calibration, cooling capacities and fine tuning of the IS machines.

The swabbing robot is not intended to completely replace the operator; it makes the working environment safer and more effective for the glass plant. A close link between the machine and human helps to achieve and maintain higher production rates.

User benefits

Thanks to the technical solutions implemented in the Novaxion robot concept, it is now possible to significantly improve plant performance, reduce lubricant consumption (>75%), provide a more efficient and high quality lubrication process, reduce rejects, product defects and losses, and contribute to a cleaner and safer working environment, while removing the operator from the contaminated area, thereby protecting their health.

The smart robot also has XNcontrol software, as well as section temperature measurement and cooling management.

Automation should be applied where the disruptions in the process are revealed. Swabbing is a process where variations exist by shift, by operator or by the product being used (lubricant type and quantity).

A constant quality of production with high output is achievable with automatic swabbing. With extensive experience, Novaxion is ahead of this technology and can offer a comprehensive solution to an automatic swabbing project: � Using a spray for smarter and more precise application of lubricant inside the moulds and neck rings. � The special nozzle provides smart swabbing to the neck rings, without

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� Swabbing mould closed.

The new NX-VR-300 swabbing robot mounts on the valve blocks of all IS machines. Provides mould closed and neck ring automatic swabbing within the same section cycle. On the fly swabbing, no reject.

� Frederic Nio, Managing Director at Novaxion

NEW

THE UNIQUE PATENTED SOLUTION FOR MOULD CLOSED SWABBING WITH 15 YEARS EXPERIENCE

administration@novaxion.fr Check for your local contact on website www.novaxion.fr

polluting the plunger equipment. � A patented solution for mould-closed swabbing. � On-the-fly mould closed swabbing with no rejects.

As a proof of the equipment’s success, more than 100 swabbing robots are successfully running on four continents, with projects in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas. �

*Managing Director, Novaxion, Saint Rémy de Provence, France www.novaxion.fr

� Triple gob Novaxion spraying tool and nozzle extension.