THE CHALLENGE

In 2016, we were contacted by one of the most important foundries worldwide to participate in the creation of a new automatic cell for core gluing and for the insertion of a metal filter on the top core. Also in this case the space available to create the system was very limited and the products to be created were of 3 different types: no. 2 RH-LH products on which to perform extraction of the products from the existing core shooter, deburring, the insertion and fixing of a metallic filter, gluing of the cores that comprise the upper package and finally palletisation of the core trolleys. For the third type of product the request was: extraction from the core shooter and depositing of the core package on a shuttle conveyor where it will be unloaded manually by the operator.

THE SOLUTION

With our philosophy we were able to find a very interesting configuration in which we used no. 3 ABB robots. With the aid of grippers mounted on board it was possible to perform the operations of removal of the cores from the core shooter, deburring, removal of the metal filter from a warehouse with automatic feed, distribution of the glue and composition of the core package. In the cell there are no. 2 shuttle conveyors which perform the task of translating the cores towards the operator in order to allow a visual inspection and repositioning of the individual cores. After the step of bonding and filter fixing, this head core pack is palletised on 5 separable level core trolleys which are made to advance, once filled by a roller conveyor, towards the operator. This solution was adopted to increase the autonomy of the cell and to avoid having an operator dedicated to the finished product.

THE RESULTS

Having defined the lay-out with the customer, the entire cell was custom created using an innovative process of insertion and fixing of the metal filter using stapling heads and thanks to optimisation of the spaces it will in future be possible to fit other cells on the same core shooter installed close to this cell.

CUSTOMER COMMENT

Satisfied with the result obtained, the customer is considering replicating the automation of 3 existing core shooters still currently operated via a manual offload system.