A leading global provider of high performance brake and friction solutions was searching for a better way to load and unload heavy parts. This system also needed to have the ability to accommodate various sizes of heavy parts and have part marking capabilities.
A 3D bin picking system was created using a loading system with a custom three-axis servo-driven cartesian robot. Tooled with magnetic grippers, the system picks parts off a cart and places them onto a belt conveyor. Due to ergonomic restraints, a short infeed conveyor was added to feed parts into a pre-existing fladder machine. The robot places parts in a staggered pattern across the slow-moving belt to meet the six second cycle time.
An additional custom three-axis servo driven cartesian robot was used for the unloading system. The robot picks parts off the exit conveyor and places them in stacks on carts using magnetic grippers. The unloading system is guided by a vision camera mounted above the outfeed conveyor to track the parts as they come out of the fladder.
A mechanism was included to flip parts over 180 degrees. The flipper grips the parts with a wide jaw pneumatic gripper. The servo that flips the parts goes in one direction which is possible by using a union for the air lines to prevent entanglement. This system can accommodate all sizes of customer-specified parts, and at any position on the belt with no change-over.
Machine Rate: 6 seconds per part
