April 2019

accuracy of ±0.05mm at maximum lift/reach. The robot’s wrist is protected to IP67, and its arm to IP65, making it ideal for use in the plastics industry. “We had a detailed list of objectives which we shared with Kawasaki Robotics early on,” recalls Synthotec project engineer, Jon Hart. “We needed to achieve significant cost savings across our demoulding cells from improved throughput. We also wanted to reduce the physical size of each production cell, because floor space is at a premium, and we needed a robot that was straightforward to install, programme and manage ourselves. “Additionally, we had a desire to do our own training and systems integration on the new robot: to evolve our own way of doing things,” he continues.“And we wanted a robot supplier that recognised our existing in-house skills, was prepared to brief us accordingly, and then let us get on with the job of installing, commissioning and using the chosen equipment ourselves.” “Our list of critical criteria was very specific,” adds SynthoTec’s operations director, Wayne Williams. These included: a guaranteed reduction in cycle times; the ability to reduce the physical size of each cell; and the ability to load/unload completed pallets without stopping production. Instant stopping One of the reasons that SynthoTec opted for the Kawasaki robot was that it could also be stopped instantly, if required. Despite the long reach of the arm, its compact size allowed SynthoTec to meet another design brief: reducing the width of each demoulding cell by at least 1m. The expandable design of the robot also allowed SynthoTec to“future-proof” its installation.“As we grow,”says Hart,“our robot capability also grows for some time to come, and we can do it ourselves on demand.” With thousands of moulding and demoulding operations taking place on each shift, repeatability, reliability and durability were critical. SynthoTec ended up acquiring three robots and calculated that the payback period for all three would be just 14 months. “SynthoTec were clear from the start about both their application objectives and their desire to manage the project to completion themselves,”reports Kawasaki Robotics’sales manager, Ian Hensman, a 27-year veteran of the applied robotics business.“It was immediately obvious to us that, in this case, we could be completely confident in their ability to commission and install one of our robots, with our team simply providing the equipment, together with oversight and detailed infill, as and when required. “It is unusual for a customer to want to do this themselves, as our many integrators will confirm,”he adds.“We were delighted that the SynthoTec engineering team proved to be more than capable of fully integrating our robot into their production processes, with minimal requests to us for clarification and guidance. Between us, we took this project from first meeting to up-and-running in just 25 weeks, and the system is performing exactly as they wanted. And there are further opportunities for even greater throughput instantly on tap, if desired.” SynthoTec is guarded about specific details of its application, but reports that the system has been faultless in operation, and has been working to a tolerance of just 0.02mm over thousands of daily cycles. On the basis of this project, Kawasaki has awarded SynthoTec an“approved integrator” certificate.“We only ever set out to improve our in-house production capabilities,”says managing director, GrahamWard,“but it seems that our engineering team are as conversant with automation and robotics as they are with producing premium quality plastic parts!” n The Kawasaki robot enters the demoulding machine to collect more completed bearing cages. The pallet- mounted mandrels onto which the cages are dropped can be seen in the foreground. En route to the mandrel, the robot discharges injection sprue material into a granulator for re-use. IT INFRASTRUCTURE SOFTWARE & SERVICES www.rittal.co.uk ROBOTICS n