Changing an air cylinder to ROBO Cylinder improved the cycle time for the solution application process.
Papers /Films/Wires/Building Materials
Changing an air cylinder to ROBO Cylinder improved the cycle time for the solution application process – CT-Effects Application Example
[ Actuator ]
RCP2-SA6C
[Issues until now]
– Air Cylinders were used to move the syringe to apply solution to the copper wires. – Uneven amounts of solution were supplied to the felt when low speeds caused instability. – In an attempt to fix the unevenness, the discharge amount was increased but became excessive. This caused failures that led to Choco Tei* in the process.
Since the brushing was done by hand, the following issues occurred in the cleaning process
1) Incomplete cleaning due to the unevenness in the speed of the stroke of the brush 2) Incomplete cleaning due to the unevenness in the strength of the stroke of the brush.
Since the brushing was repeated numerous times until the printer was completely clean, a lot of time was spent on the cleaning process.
[Improvement Details]
The unevenness in the cleaning process was fixed by moving the brush at a constant speed. (The touch of the brush to the machine was also stabilized)
[Improvement Results]
The efficiency of the brushing process improved and the cleaning time became shorter.
Reduction in cleaning time (per day): Reduced from 60min →10min
Production Time (per day): 12% increase from 420min →470min
Motorizing the feed process increased production, and significantly lowered electricity and labor costs.
Papers/Films/Wires/Building Materials
Cutting Cords to Variable Specified Lengths – CT-Effects Application Example
[ Robot/Electric Actuators ]
RCP5-RA6C
[Issues until now]
– Air cylinders were used to feed a cord to a specified length.
– It took time to manually adjust the stopper position each time the product type was changed. (About 5 minutes per changeover = 1 hour/day)
– It was difficult to cut the correct length, causing workers to repeatedly inspect and adjust the cutting.
[Improved with Motorization]
– Manually adjusting the stopper position was totally eliminated. Adjustments are now done by entering the feed amount on a touch panel. Manual changeovers are a thing of the past.
– Using a value command function in the ROBO Cylinder made it easy to cut lengths of specified varieties. The manual labor for adjustments was significantly reduced.
[Improvement Results]
– Production was increased from 7 hours per day to 8 hours.
– Reducing the number of steps also reduced labor costs.
One operator
*Labor $18.00/hour 8 hours/day
*Overtime work 2 hours
*250 operational days/year
*Exchange Rate: 1(USD)=100(Japanese Yen)
Electronic Components
Continuity Inspection Tool – CT-Effects Application Example
[ Robot/Electric Actuators ]
[ Controllers ]
RCP4-SA7C, RCP2-SS8C
PCON-CA
[Equipment Detail]
It is a continuity inspection tool used for a PC extension board manufacturer.
An air cylinder is used in this application to insert an edge connector on a PC board.
An operator loads and unloads a PC board to the air cylinder manually.
[Problems in Using an Air Cylinder]
Since you can’t change speed with air cylinders, you will need to move the entire stroke at the same speed to insert the PC board to the inspection tool. The cycle time is 15 seconds, and the number of work pieces that can be inspected in an 8 hour work day was 1,920 pieces *1.
Management decided to increase the production volume of the PC boards to 2,400 pieces per 8 hour shift and to accomplish this, 2 hours *2 of over time per day was required.
By switching to ROBO Cylinder, this enables them to move at high speed before insertion and then slow down just before the insertion, which lead to a shorter cycle time of 12 seconds.
It is now able to finish inspection within the operational hours. Also the reduction of labor cost for overtime work was accomplished.
The cost spent to replace the cylinder was retrieved in the 1st year, which resulted in a cost reduction of $9,000 from the 2nd year.
