Category Archives: Application Examples

Application Examples, CT-Effects, Kaizen, Reduce Cost

Reduced Costs for Chocolate Quality Inspection

Industry: Food
Process: Inspection

How We Reduced Costs for the Quality Inspection Process

[Problems]
· An air cylinder was used to move the camera for quality inspection.
· Pressure adjustment to set the specified speed was difficult, and the speed was unstable even after adjustment.
· As a result of moving the camera at high speed in order to achieve the necessary number of production per day, the camera was damaged every year from the shock (at the start / stop) received at the stroke end.

[Improvements by Electric Actuation]
· With smooth acceleration / deceleration, it is now possible to move at a stable and high speed without the shock impact at the stroke end. This reduced the cycle time.
· The camera no longer needed to be replaced.

[Results of Improvement]
· Improved cycle time and increased production efficiency.
→ 25% higher production efficiency.

· The shortening of inspection work time reduced labor costs.
The number of production required per day is 54,000.
Inspection time was reduced from 15 hours to 12 hours per day after electric motorization, which means the inspection time was reduced 3 hours per day.
Annual number of working days 240 days, labor cost $18 / hour
3 hours × 240 days × $18
→ Reduced annual labor cost by $12,960.

· Eliminated camera replacement cost.
→ Reduced cost $8,000 per year.

 

Related product information
Single axis robot: ISDB-L-400

 

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Application Examples, CT-Effects, Kaizen, Reduce Cost

Automating Touch Panel Inspection Process

Industry: Electronic equipment / Home Appliances
Process: Positioning

Inspection Process Costs were Reduced!

[Product Handled]
· Touchscreen tablet

[Process]
· Touch the display on the touchscreen with a pen (touch inspection). This is the process of inspecting the deviation between the touch position and reaction position.

[Before Improvement]
· Personnel operated the touch pen and inspected each tablet. Working time: 2 minutes / unit
· Two people were needed for the required production volume (500 units / day). 500 units × 2 minutes ÷ 480 minutes (8 hours) = 2.1 ≒ 2 people / day.

[Improvement by adopting Tabletop robots]
· We were able to automate the touch inspection process.
· It is now possible to conduct two inspections in parallel using 1 minute for the automated touch inspection. (Two tabletop robots were installed.)

[Results of Improvement]
· By automating the touch inspection, one person can now inspect twice as many units as before.
· Personnel costs were reduced to half.

[Total Effect]
→ *Process cost reduction for the 1st year: $22,815
(*Based on case study in Japan.)

 

Related product information
Actuators: Tabletop Robot TT-C3

 

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Application Examples, CT-Effects

Equipment for Transferring Bread on Conveyor Belts

Industry: Medical / Food & Beverage
Process: Transfer

$52,800 saved yearly due to CT Effect

Equipment Overview
The equipment is for pushing bread on a conveyor belt sideways to transfer it to a sideways-moving conveyor belt.

There is a stopper in front of the device that pushes the bread sideways, and the stopper opens and closes in a set interval.

Problems with the air cylinder
The speed is unstable with the air cylinder, so when the speed was raised too much, the time it took to push the bread sideways after the stopper opened became too long or too short.

This caused problems like

  • The bread being pushed away from the set position
  • After pushing, the vertical axis not lifting in time during the return, causing contact with the bread

Such problems caused the bread to get smashed.

CT Effect due to motorization
By motorizing the process, the speed became unified and the movement became accurate. This made high-speed operation possible.

As a result, the cycle time (round-trip movement) reduced from 4.0 seconds to 2.3 seconds. Work time was reduced by 2 hours per day.

Three workers used to be placed on this line to maintain packing machines and restore the product when “Choco Tei” occurred in the process before and after the packing machine. Cost for these labors were reduced.

Unit Price of Labor,
Number of workers		 Hourly wage $10, 3 people
Equipment Cost Air cylinder equipment $800, ROBO Cylinder Equipment $2,000.
A $1,200 increase.
Labor cost reduction effect  from shorter cycle time Reduction: 2 hours/day x $10/hour x 3 people= $60/day

Annually = $60/day x 20 days/month x 12 months = $14,400 reduction
Total $14,400 – $,1200 = $13,200 reduction

Since there are 4 lines, $13,200 x 4 = $52,800 annual reduction

Related product information
Actuators:
RCP2-SA7C, RCP2-SRGD4R

Controller:
PCON-C

 

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Application Examples, CT-Effects

Equipment for Marking Automobile Parts

Industry: Automotive / Machine Tools
Process: Marking

Parts are measured and checked by product type using a camera before the marking process.

This data is sent to the XSEL controller using serial communication. The XSEL controller corrects the character size and angle, then moves the pen attached to the Cartesian robot to mark the alphanumeric characters.

This process was previously done by hand, but automating had the following effects.

  • The cost of errors that happened when done by hand were eliminated.
  • Labor costs were reduced.
  • It became possible to fulfill the automation requests by car manufacturers.

Related product information
Actuators:
IAI Cartesian Robots

Controller:
XSEL Controller

 

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