Automating pulley moulding

An Engel product story

Edited by the Manufacturingtalk editorial team Jan 12, 2001

An Engel unmanned injection moulding line, conceived with rapid mould change-ocver, is producing a wide variety of automotive drive belt pulleys for the Dutch enterprise Axxicon.

An Engel unmanned injection moulding line, conceived with rapid mould change-ocver, is producing a wide variety of automotive drive belt pulleys for the Dutch enterprise Axxicon.

Pulley production was a very demanding and labour intensive process, with regard to the high precision, the critical temperature range and the wear resistance to be achieved.

To automate prtoduction, a line should enable unmanned operation for at least 8h.

In close cooperation with Axxicon, the engineers of the Engel Automation Technology Division arranged parts to arrive on a large buffer conveyor-belt, for transfer to an isolation belt.

On this belt, the parts, including bearings, are pre-isolated at different cavity distances by bubble guides and isolation plates for pick-up by an Engel ERC robot which places them as inserts into the fixed mould half.

Prefabricated parts taken from the ejector half of the mould are placed afterwards on an intermediate depositing table by the ERC robot.

Then the ERC robot loads the next batch of parts to the die half.

A second ERC robot is used to fill boxes with the mouldings, the boxes being presented and removed by handling devices.