• You can recognise a really good idea
    by the fact that its realisation seemed
    impossible from the outset.

    (Albert Einstein)

    Whether tried and tested solutions or a completely new approach for your complex project: nothing is impossible with a deep understanding of your challenges and the right idea. That is why we exhibit a wide range of performance and develop cross-sector expertise. Our conviction is therefore to rely on a high degree of value creation to cover all trades from a single source. 

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digital printing
plastics
intra-logistics
automotive
aviation industry
packaging industry
medical
food industry
machinery
assembly
plastics

System concept with modular EOL area

Production and quality assurance of motor contact modules

The challenge: Semi-automated production of a component in the automotive sector with process integration of various automation components (punch, testing devices, camera systems, etc.)

The solution: Semi-automated process with integrated rotary indexing table in the SGM area and a flexible test cell with a modular test table for adding new components 
The system personnel insert the prepared punching grids into the lower part of the punching tool. The rotary indexing table cycles and the contacts are punched free by the integrated press. At a manual workstation, the personnel place the parts in fixtures that map the arrangement and orientation of the injection mold before a six-axis robot ensures automatic contact removal of the prepared parts. Once the finished parts have been removed, the contacts are inserted into the mold of the injection moulding machine. Once the sprue has been ejected, the robot places the good parts on a conveyor belt. Bad parts are discarded via a separate ejector. The injection-molded parts are now packed in trays.

In the end-of-line area, which can be operated as a stand-alone system, parts are fed in by another employee. A robot transfers the fed parts to a 12-station inspection table. The components are then inspected at the occupied stations (optical nest detection, electrical inspection, pin height inspection using a measuring probe, wobble circle inspection using an integrated image processing system, DMC marking using a marking laser, DMC quality control using a scanner and component cleaning). Meanwhile, a dummy part station is used to requalify the components. The good parts are output via a conveyor belt and manually removed plus packed. Bad parts are sorted out according to their type of defect. The relevant process data is logged for each component and made available to the customer for production data acquisition.

Highlights at a glance

Standardized mechanical and electrical interfaces

Modularity for possible product extensions

Partial automation of manual workstations

Integration of various external systems

Access to a wide range of system information and parameters via the control panel

Option for cobot integration and further expansion stages

intra-logistics

Single Pack: single-variety palletizing according to individual scheme

Fully automatic palletizing of very heavy, heterogeneous cartons across four quadrants

The challenge: Automated palletizing for the delivery of different cartons up to 30 kg (varying footprints and individual heights), which are to be grouped into unmixed units.

The solution: A newly developed palletizing system (“Single Pack”) with individual vacuum gripper technology for flexible, individual inline production of the specified palletizing schemes.

The Adolf Würth GmbH & Co. KG relies on the “Single Pack” solution at the Northern Distribution Center at its headquarters in Künzelsau-Gaisbach. This is used for mixed palletizing (as a whole) as well as single-variety palletizing (per quadrant) in order to group cartons with three different footprints and individual heights into single-variety groups.

The palletizing solution fits seamlessly into the existing material flow. The corresponding products are delivered via rigid conveyor systems. The system has a total output of 1,000 cartons per hour (per robot). The vacuum gripper used for this is supplied by a moving blower. Individual 3D-printed components integrated into the gripper technology are used to generate efficient vacuum distribution with the help of vacuum circuits in order to serve the intended product range. The division into four quadrants or packing stations, at each of which a pallet is available, enables flexible, single-variety inline generation of the palletizing schemes in a very confined space. This reduces the ergonomic workload for employees, allowing them to remove the ready-to-pack pallets from the designated stations.

Highlights at a glance

Flexible palletizing

Cost savings through electric air generation

High degree of standardization

Scalable solutions with additional robot cells

Customized gripper technology with vacuum technology for very heavy cartons of different sizes

Grouping of products for each quadrant of the pallet

intra-logistics

Box- and pallet handling on five palletizing stations

Automated: Mixed boxes and pallet handling on five palletizing stations

The challenge: The automation of manual removal and sorting of five different types of boxes with subsequent palletizing by type onto two different pallet types

The solution: A well thought-out system layout with five palletizing stations, on which a powerful robot places the previously sorted pallet types and loads them with boxes according to type.

In the first step, the pallet provided in the pallet dispenser is picked up by the robot and placed on one of the five roller conveyors. As soon as this is done, the robot moves to the appropriate box, picks it up using flexible vacuum technology and places it on the pallet. The robot repeats this process until the pallet is loaded with three layers, for example, and all the boxes have been picked up. The finished pallet is now transported away via the roller conveyor. Previously, sorting and removal were carried out manually. The time and physical effort this required is no longer necessary. The employees are now responsible for system monitoring and process optimization.

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Highlights at a glance

Palletizing up to 440 boxes per hour

Speed and repeat accuracy

Upskilling of employees

High-performance pallet and box handling

Integration of further automation components

assembly

Production of filter systems for air purification devices

Robot cell for assembling filter systems with hot melt station and ultrasonic welding system

The challenge: The semi-automated, space-saving assembly of a three-part filter system that meets the high requirements for quality and process stability in the manufacture of air purification devices

The solution: A highly flexible overall concept consisting of an A-cell with integrated articulated arm robot, graphics-based robot programming, hot melt station, ultrasonic unit and a human-machine interface

Each filter system consists of three components: Frame, filter and cover. In the first step, the operator clamps the frame into one of two workpiece carriers on the rotary table. The turntable cycles. The robot grips the workpiece carrier and moves to the hot melt station. The glue is applied using the robot's degrees of freedom and the gluing unit remains rigid. Only the amount of glue applied is varied relative to the speed of movement of the component. The robot then places the component together with the workpiece carrier back on the turntable. At the same time, the operator fits the filter and the cover onto the already glued frame of the second workpiece carrier. As soon as the robot is ready and the release is given by foot switch, the rotary table cycles. The robot now handles the second workpiece carrier and moves to the ultrasonic welding unit. Here, the cover is welded to the frame. The robot then places the workpiece carrier with the fully assembled filter system back on the rotary table. While the same process (loading the frame with filter and cover, robot handling, welding process) takes place for the component on the first workpiece carrier, the personnel remove the finished part from the second workpiece carrier. The filter system is now installed in the “Atem X” air cleaner.

“New products or product variants can be set up quickly and easily, which would not be possible with conventional robot programming. We were able to add a double or activated carbon filter to the component ourselves.” Peter Reimer, Managing Director / CEO IQAir Germany GmbH

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Highlights at a glance

Flexibility

Simple operation and programming

Integration of automation components

Ergonomics and safety at the manual workstation

Low space requirement due to the robot's degrees of freedom

Standardized interfaces for expansion options

intra-logistics

Repacking content from boxes into shipping cartons

Fully automatic handling of 200 boxes and 11 pallets per hour

The challenge: The fully automatic repacking of crate contents into shipping cartons, taking into account the requirements of gentle handling of the bulk goods and high process reliability.

The solution: A flexible system concept with integrated vision systems, a new type of assembly for bulk goods handling and highly dynamic robotics for palletizing, depalletizing and labelling.

The operator confirms that the pallet has been loaded correctly. The light grid is focused and the 3D scanner determines the number of containers per pallet. A vision system integrated into the gripper technology locates the container positions, while a powerful six-axis robot depalletizes two crates simultaneously.
A scanner checks the container identification (barcode + numbering) at the transfer to the tipping station. Based on this, the information for the shipping label is transmitted to the higher-level print server - the specific label is printed.
After depalletizing, the crates move sequentially into the tipping station. Each crate is then individually fixed in place by a positioning mechanism and rotated 180 degrees for the repacking process. At the same time, the corresponding shipping carton is fed to the order by the automatic carton erector. The shipping carton is fixed at the lower level of the overturning station and lifted by a lifting table. While the rollers of the tipping station push the four carton flaps outwards, the guide plate opens and the contents of the carton slide out of the box into the shipping carton. A vibration unit reduces the bulk cone when the carton is lowered.

The fpt LabelBOT applies the prepared shipping labels to the carton using suction gripper technology. A final plausibility check of the barcode is then carried out before the carton is ejected for dispatch preparation. Parallel to the labeling process, the six-axis robot palletizes the empty boxes onto the target pallet. The pallet with the empty containers is made available for collection via the conveyor system.

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Highlights at a glance

Handling of 200 boxes and 11 pallets per hour

Visual pallet and container identification

fpt LabelBOT with industrial printer

High packaging performance

Development and construction of an individual repackaging solution (overturning station)

Process-safe handling of sensitive bulk solids

medical plastics

All from one single source: Fully automatic injection moulding, packaging and printing

Production and packaging of dental drills in the cleanroom cell 

The electric injection moulding machine in the ALLDRIVE series produces two filigree drills in a cycle time of approximately 30 seconds with the highest precision. Two drills are packaged automatically in parallel with the injection moulding cycle. This is done by the flexible six-axis robot travelling to several locations distributed in the area: it takes the moulded parts from the tool, places them on a cooling station and deposits them in the correct location in the blister packaging. The special technical challenge: Each drill must lie horizontally in its plastic sleeve so that later the dentist is always offered the shaft to grasp when opening. Units of up to ten pieces are individually perforated, printed, transferred on a conveyor belt and finally manually packed into cartons.

The six-axis robot and packaging systems are docked to the machine via a safety enclosure. Together with clean-air modules, a completely enclosed cleanroom cell is formed over the entire work area. This meets the requirements of clean room class 7. Post-processing or sterilisation is not required before use.

Video

Highlights at a glance

Ready to use product: in one step fully automatic injection moulding, packaging and printing

Simple and flexible to programme: six-axis robot with the same user interface as the machine control

Centrally monitored: automation and peripherals integrated into the SELOGICA machine control

Precision: 0.8 gram lightweight moulded parts with tolerances in the hundredth range

aviation industry plastics

Highly dynamic, flexible and compact: Subito Connect C cell  

Lightweight construction: production of a model aircraft wheel 

Particle foam composite injection moulding (in German PVSG) produces a permanent mechanical connection – in this case between EPP tyre and PP rim. Retention and clip functions are also easy to realise. The entire handling is undertaken by the Subito Connect C cell, which enables absolute flexibility when placed at the injection moulding machine with safety enclosure. The six-axis robot is mounted hanging on a further 7th linear axis and enables dynamic movements and rapid interventions into the tool and thus the shortest cycle times and higher productivity.

More on the project

Highlights at a glance

Plug and play automation cell with hanging robot

An additional linear axis for high dynamic response and speed in overcoming long distances

Subito Connect cells can be placed flexibly at the equipment and including safety enclosure they are compact and space-saving.

Simple and flexible to programme: six-axis robot with the same user interface as the machine control

digital printing plastics

Inline digital printing with flexible customisation

Plastic name tag 

For inline printing the injection moulding is directly linked with digital printing. Even curved moulded parts can be printed without edges and very flexibly using the InkBOT process. Precise robot kinematics and special inkjet print heads for UV coatings and inks form the basis for refining the surface of plastic parts in the injection moulding cycle. The name tags run through a multi-stage process of plasma pre-treatment, primer coat, 4-colour digital printing and UV curing. Further process steps like assembly or packaging are also easy to integrate because robotics is the basis. The manufacture of individual name tags on a production cell demonstrates the enormous potential of inline printing. Including extremely fast motif changes.


Video

Highlights at a glance

Printing in the injection moulding cycle: Print speed dynamically adaptable

Fast motif changes: change print data without set-up costs per cycle

Simple and flexible to programme: six-axis robot with the same user interface as the machine control 

3D geometries: edgeless 4-colour printing without fixed printing plate – with up to 6 mm height difference

High print quality: 600 dpi resolution, precise to 2 image pixels per inch

medical plastics

Plastic gear manufacturing

Preparing, encapsulating, preserving and packaging steel shafts 

Shafts are removed from polystyrene trays, measured, inspected and prepared at cavity spacing in a transfer station. Collection occurs via the insert gripper's intervention into the injection moulding machine. The steel shaft of the finished gear is held at a station and preserved by an oil mist (atomizer nozzle). A pusher then transfers it to the packaging robot. This transfers trays from a pallet with small load carriers onto the pallet to hold the finished parts – the small load carriers are centred at another station. The packaging robot removes the finished parts from the pusher and packs them into the transferred small load carriers. 

Highlights at a glance

The same operating and programming interface for injection moulding machine and automation

Floated loading of the shaft provides highly accurate insertion without leaving tracks

Preservation of the steel shaft in oil mist before packaging

Packaging through to transportation-ready pallet

automotive plastics

Compact manufacturing cell for automotive control valve 

Plastic encapsulation of coil bodies with contacts

The operator presses a button to request a change between finished part and blank. A pusher moves over the requested shaft and limits part feeding for automation. A trolley with fully equipped blisters (as a stack) can then be pulled out and a trolley with empty blister stacks inserted. There are three such shafts from which a 3-axis handler removes the blisters and prepares them at a centring position. A second 3-axis handler on the same base carrier sets the inserts into the correct grid in a transfer pusher. This in turn operates the 3-axis insertion and removal stage in advance of the injection moulding machine. The handler removes four finished parts, traverses, centres itself on the tool and inserts four blanks. The finished parts are set down on the cooling tray, four cooled parts are moved onto the transfer pusher. This travels back to the preparation handler, the four finished parts are transferred to the subsequent inspection cell. 

Highlights at a glance

Cycle time is 18 seconds (4-fold tool) in 3-shift operation

The same operating and programming interface for robotics, rotary table and injection moulding machine

Active cooling of the finished parts including inline inspection 

Blanks and finished parts in customer-owned, fully automated transport trolley

Injection moulding machine and tool area is very easily accessible from the front

Compact layout (not much space required)

automotive plastics

Clean room production of optical screens

Production of a transparent instrument screen in combination with manual quality control and ESD-compliant packaging 

A robot removes two tachometer cover screens firmly joined by a sprue. A laser separates the sprue from the screens, which are then set down on a cooling tray. The two cooled screens are then removed and placed in an ionising station where they are sprayed with a fine mist of ionisation fluid. After this operation, the parts are swung onto a belt and conveyed to operator 1. Here follows a visual inspection in front of a light/dark field and insertion into the base frame. The prepared module is placed on a belt and at the end of the belt it is centred and picked up by a second robot. This places the module into a vibration welding system for welding, into an infra-red station for deburring and then places them on a belt to operator 2. Here there is a renewed inspection in front of a light/dark field and manual packaging into plastic sheeting and cardboard. 

Highlights at a glance

Handling of a sensitive component that is difficult to grasp

Two autonomous cells with integrated manual workstation

Clean room production:

laser sprue separation, vibration welding to secure the component and deburring via infra-red

plastics

Small series production through fully automatic retooling

Automated: tool preheating and tool change with subsequent sprue punching, fully integrated into the job control system 

Small series means productivity if retooling can be carried out as quickly as possible. This automation therefore omits a gripper change. Our specially developed universal gripper can not only be used for the entire product range, but also implements the automatic tool (form) change on the injection moulding machine. The next tool on the tool-use memory (16 stations) is preheated to further accelerate retooling. This tool station does not take up any additional production space because it is positioned on the injection moulding machine. Plastic samples with a wide variety of geometries are removed from the injection moulding facility using a universal gripper. The handler orients the moulded component on a reversing/turning station in preparation for position-precise insertion in the punching tool. The sprue is removed by punching and discarded. There is automated packaging of the finished samples. 

Highlights at a glance

Connection to higher-level job control system

Configuration rather than programming;

Job sequence and product data management are easy for the operator to organise

Very high variant diversity with fully automatic tooling

Space-saving and fully automatic tool change (including pre-heating) due to using the space above the injection moulding machine as a tool station

automotive plastics

Inline automotive connector production

Complex automation: 9 x six-axis robots – integration of punching and cutting tools – contact preparation and quality control 

Plus/minus stamping grids and one stamping grid with signal contacts are fed into the system in stacked trays. These are unstacked and the signal contacts are reshaped in the punching tool, separated and then fed into the tool grid. The insertion gripper picks up all the parts and places them into the injection moulding tool. It also picks up 36 rivet washers that are supplied to the system as bulk material and also places these them into the injection moulding tool (up to 66 parts). Since an injection moulding tool base unit is available to the rotary table injection machine during the entire procedure, the removal gripper and insertion gripper are separate entities due to their complexity.   After the injection process, the finished parts are temporarily stored on a part buffer with cooling function and then punched in a die. All parts are inspected to 100% during an inline quality control by means of optical control and high-voltage test, then marked and transferred to an assembly line.

Video

Highlights at a glance

30-second total cycle with high availability 

Complete tray logistics with articulated arm robots

Part buffer with cooling function and quality control of all parts

Insertion of 6x2 stamping grid from tray and 6x6 rivet washers 

Insertion of 6x3 signal contacts, reshaping and separation from a punching unit

automotive assembly plastics

MRR (mid-range radar) contact encapsulation 

Encapsulation of contacts, assembly, inspection and packaging 

One robot removes 2x2 pre-encapsulated contact sets from a punching tool and transfers it directly to the insertion and extraction robot via handshake. Finished parts are removed, taken in the tool and centred and the contact sets inserted. The other half of the tool must be supported during insertion to actuate back-pressure pins for the ejector plate. The finished parts are placed on a buffer workpiece carrier for cooling and conveyance to the second plant section. A small robot removes the cooled part from the buffer and transfers it to a rotary indexing table for assembly and inspection. The parts are centred in the first position and held in the nest via a spring mechanism. Finished parts are removed by active loosening of the spring mechanism, packed in blisters and made ready on a tray stacking system. Quality assurance positions: insertion control, temperature monitoring and electrical inspection (HV, short-circuit, continuity). Functional positions: dispensing, application and welding of membrane, optical control of membrane position, spring assembly (4-fold), optical control of spring position, laser labelling and inspection of the lettering. 

Highlights at a glance

Integration of complex processes (in line) without reduction of output

Membrane is welded to the module in the assembly process

Assembly, 100% control, quality assurance and labelling

Uniform programming and user interface between machine and automation

High degree of autonomy, including fault-specific NOK output

automotive assembly plastics

Automatic production and quality assurance of membrane valve assemblies

Encapsulation of valve assemblies via inline assembly, quality control and packaging of 30 parts per minute. 

The membrane is fed as roll goods from a reel, punched on a servo carriage and supplied 8-fold to the insertion/removal gripper. The eight membranes are captured and placed into the injection moulding machine tool on top of the pre-moulded parts. In the same process as during insertion, the finished parts are removed from the other tool half and stored on two servo carriages. The subsequent inspection and assembly process involves a transfer robot placing the parts onto the rotary table stations. Stations in the 100% inspection: control of presence and correct insertion – optical control of membrane quality – insert cover (supply as bulk material) – seal cover by ultrasonic welding – mount O-ring from below via thread in groove (O-ring as bulk material) – optical control of O-ring type and thread of the component – air flow monitoring via two separate channels (depending on membrane type) – laser marking with logo and unique component ID – ejection of NOK parts – forwarding of QA parts to packaging. A distribution turret feeds the exact number of elements packed in bags into boxes. All processes regularly validated by stationary requalification parts positioned in the cell. 

Highlights at a glance

Fully integrated and automated production cell with 100% QA inspection

Regular, automatic process validation via requalification parts

Data management (scan) for traceability of processed material batches and production data for each individual component

Various part variants (thread geometry and length, material, colour, membrane type, O-ring type and labelling)

High productivity at 30 parts per minute. (8-fold / 16 seconds) 

intra-logistics packaging industry food industry

Efficiency in the smallest space: robot palletising cell

Fully automatic palletising and order picking of wet-bonding labels 

Compact cell for fully automatic pallet replacement and order picking locations including layer handling and empty pallet provisioning in the smallest space (circa 56 m2). Additional order picking for small series and NOK products on Kanban roller conveyor. The universal gripper undertakes both palletising and pallet replacement including layer handling. Camera monitoring ensures that there is no mix up in product labels and that sorting is undertaken by varieties (barcode for strawberry or raspberry). A flexible gripper and intelligent software enables automatic coverage and high bandwidth of different products. These can be adapted by simple configuration in the software. The ready-to-ship pallets can be forwarded from the system. 

Highlights at a glance

Pallet gripper, layer gripper and palletising gripper in one

Ergonomic workload reduction through automation 

Advance order picking in a Kanban shelf

Space requirements drastically reduced with increased process safety