• 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. 

Please choose one or more categories:

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