Ramtaps (Harbic Products)

Ramtaps Cell

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 out-feed 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 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.

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 special-purpose 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:

1. To eliminate repetitive manual loading
2. To have a common process which makes the components transportable from one machine to the other
3. 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)

What was your previous role before working at John Hart?
It was a similar sort of role with a small integrator. Before that, I was on the road with Festo which was an interesting time.

Have you always worked in manufacturing?
Yes. I’ve always worked in industrial automation and manufacturing and more often than not, as a sales person.

What made you initially want to become an engineer?
Process of elimination really. There was nothing else that interested me by the end of high school. I didn’t really know what engineering involved, but once I starting looking at it, mechanical engineering seemed to be interesting. It also seemed like a solid industry to work in.

What are you looking forward to about working at John Hart?
Getting involved with the concept and design of some good robotic applications. I also want to learn more about using vision systems and what they can achieve. Robot cells are a really great combination of design work and product knowledge and require a real team effort from everyone involved to get working. It’s pretty satisfying.

National Manufacturing Week is less than a week away, can you explain the John Hart Automation stand?
It’s going to be a couple of dynamic stands with an LR Mate and an M-3iA both using 2D vision systems. The M-3iA system is going to be very different to the type of display most people would expect to see. It will be interesting to see who comes up to us with ideas of where they can use it.

Now to finish up, how do you spend your time outside of work?
My other job is with the Army Reserve which seems to keep me busy outside of work. When I do get a bit of time I like to take the camera to Eastern Creek.

Thanks Peter. If you are in the area of Sydney and are interested in an Automation system or Fanuc Robot please get in touch with Peter on (02) 9725 4962

John Hart Automation will be located at stand number 4400. Come past to see the cells in action or talk to one of our knowledgeable Sales Engineers.

Given the increasing costs of manufacturing, the long term savings associated with factory automation, and technological advances of FANUC robots, it makes great economic sense to invest in a factory automation system.

Contact a John Hart representative regarding individual FANUC robot sales or turnkey automation solutions.

John Hart Automation and Robotics is excited to announce the much anticipated arrival of the new Fanuc M3iA robot into Australia. The M3iA has made an international name for itself by being able to handle a variety of tasks including small parts with high speed picking and assembly.

Well known for its dexterity, reach and speed the M3iA is able to easily mimic the movements of a human but at greater speed. The robot wrist moves at speeds of 4,000 degrees per second for the 4 axes model and 2,000 degrees per second for the 6 axes model. All joint and mated components are completely enclosed and sealed to IP67 rating, making the wrist suitable for working in a dust or oil mist environment. As a result the M3iA is applicable to a wide range of industries including food, medical, pharmaceutical and plastic moulding.

The M3iA will be on show at the 2012 National Manufacturing Exhibition taking place at the Sydney Showgrounds from May 8th – 11th, where it will be demonstrating its capabilities throughout the week.

Our Automation Sales team will be on hand to discuss the capabilities of the M3iA and how it can help your organisation.

We look forward to seeing you at the show.

Our thoughts are with the Japanese people during this difficult time, and we wish the country a swift recovery.

We have been in contact with FANUC Japan, whose headquarters are located at the base of Fuji Mountain in Japan just south of Tokyo. Luckily, FANUC was unaffected by the earthquake and tsunami.

As such, it is business as usual for FANUC and John Hart. Please contact us regarding any automation requirements.

The John Hart Automation & Robotics team received a great crowd over the course of the week, with a particularly strong interest in FANUC’s ‘Genkotsu robots’. Genkotsu or ‘fist’ robots are high speed delta robots that can be implemented in many applications in the food and packaging industry.

These robots are some of the fastest on the market, and the M-3iA has a market leading payload and reach.

The John Hart Automation and Robotics team would like to thank everybody who came down and supported the exhibition and visited our Automation and Robotics stand. If you came past you would have seen our live cell demonstrating the M-10iA and M-20iA robot models, operating with Fanuc’s integrated visual tracking system.

If you missed the exhibition, John Hart automation and robotics will also be exhibiting at Austech 2011. Austech will be running in the month of May from the 24th til the 27th. We look forward to seeing you there.

FANUC has achieved this reliability and functionality with the Integrated Vision iRVision suite installed on its latest R-30iA robot controller.

The R-30iA robot controller can interface with up to 32 cameras through the FANUC supplied multiplexer hardware, these cameras can be mounted remotely or directly on the robot end effecter. The FANUC supplied camera package includes an integrated LED ring light that can be controlled through the robot program.

Particular manufacturing processes require robots to locate and transfer large parts that cannot be accurately located by a single camera view. In order to fit a large part into the view of a single camera the stand-off between the part and camera can be several metres, reducing the resolution (pixels per millimetre) of the image and so the overall accuracy of the system.

FANUC’s multi view integrated vision system increases the accuracy of handling large parts by combining several individual camera images to get one accurate combined offset value, this system allows each camera to view a small section of a large part, thus increasing the resolution accuracy.

The integrated vision system is easily setup through the robot web-server that is accessed through one of the two freely available Ethernet ports on the R-30iA main board, once the vision process has been taught and calibrated the PC is removed and the captured images can be viewed on the large LCD screen of the teach pendant.

Simple menu based commands are used in the robot program to activate the required vision process and apply the resulting combined position offset from both cameras. Robot programmers do not need to run complicated external algorithms in order to get the desired result, and as the vision process is being executed on the robot controller, there are no restrictive communication problems and delays that are commonly experienced with third party vision systems.

FANUC’s iR Vision system is an inexpensive option and adds immense flexibility. The overall cost of your robotic system can be greatly reduced by removing the expensive part fixtures and location devices previously seen as indispensible to a successful robot installation.

There were numerous applications showcasing the capabilities of these compact robots on display, these included the following applications.

High Speed Solar Panel Assembly
Featuring iRVision Visual Line Tracking, this application featured the LRMate 200iC and M-1iA/0.5S robots working together to assembly small solar panels.
The M-1iA/05S robot uses iRVision to track the five solar plates being delivered from the in feed conveyor and picks them individually and places on the outfeed conveyor in an arrangement of five for the LRMate to receive. The LRMate 200iC robot then picks the five plates and places into the solar panel housing using a pneumatic gripper and covers with glass coating. In between this process the LRMate disassembles another completed solar panel to start the cycle again.

Flexible Solar Collector Assembly
The M-3iA/6A uses robot mounted iRVision camera to locate randomly located parts “On the fly” without stopping. It loads one heat-sink part into the assembly fixture and then applies adhesive to the part and mounts the solar collector onto the heat-sink. This cycle is repeated 9 times for full set of assemblies.

Here is a video taken from IMTS 2010 featuring the M1i-A and M-3iA robots as well as the Super Heavy Payload M-2000iA robot handling a cast iron machine tool base. (28MB)