Product category:
System integration services
News Release from: RNA Automation | Subject: SVIA automation systemns
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 18 December 2007
Automation helps dress toy figures
For companies making toy figurines, automation systems can handle a wide variety of produc ts, in this case, dressing toy figures with a range of different vests.
Not many automation companies have been asked to dress a whole population, said RNA Automation When the automation company SVIA were contacted with a request to handle vests for the toy citizens in the 'Playmobil' family, it was both a fun and challenging task to take on
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 11 May 2005 at 8.00am (UK)
Related stories
Robot automatically feeds unsorted parts
An 'off the shelf standard robot cell for the automatic feeding of unsorted parts uses a robot and a vision system to serve a variety of machine tools, power presses and assembly systems.
Bowl feeder drive unit meets GMP standards
A bowl feeder drive unit has been designed for use in clean rooms where equipment requires rapid change over for auto claving and uses SS tooling meeting GMP standards.
The request came from Tampoprint, which has a long and successful cooperation with Playmobil.
Tampoprint supply machines for printing and have many printing machines in production in the Playmobil factories world wide.
* Flexible feeding systems - when Tampoprint viewed the new flexible feeding systems from SVIA, it immediately recognized the great opportunities this opened up at Playmobil and many other companies using the Tampoprint printing machines.
Further reading
Bowl feeder designed for clean room use
An autoclavable stainless steel bowl feeder is a pharmaceutical design for use in clean rooms where equipment requires rapid changeover for cleaning and maintenance.
Vision guided robotic system shortens cycle times
An automatic vision guided robotic system for flexible feeding is equipped with continuous feeding from a conveyor that tracks components enabling very short cycle times.
Machine vision provides 100% high speed testing
Using machine vision to provide 100% on line testing for MDI production, machines that detect and segregate products with non-spraying and continuous spraying valves work at 120 units/min.
Some of the machines at Playmobil have been automated in the past using traditional automation, but the majority of the machines are fed manually by an operator.
The reason why this particular application has been difficult to automate is because of large number of component variants.
The toy 'people' in the Playmobil family have a diversified taste and different outfits depending on if they should play their lives as firemen, pirates or school teachers.
Tampoprint wanted to feed approximately 15 different types of small plastics vests of every type available with 10 different colours, into a Tampoprint machine.
SVIA offered its flexible feeder MiniFlex.
It is a feed system and a robot combined with SVIA's vision system for robot guidance.
The 'PickVision' vision system enables the robot to 'see' and pick almost any product.
A buffer is simply filled with components and then separated and fed onto a camera conveyor using vibratory linear feeders.
The camera then identifies the position of the component including rotation and picks directly from the conveyor with accurate high precision.
* Component picking and orientation - components that are lying in a difficult pick position or on top of each other will be recycled back to the buffer zone.
The MiniFlex is a very compact standard in design and construction well proven system developed for this type of task, said SVIA in a report to manufacturingtalk.com.
For larger components or applications with faster cycle time SVIA can offer alternative standard machines, each of which is developed to match almost any specification.
SVIA systems supplied around the world feed components from 1g up to 85kg and the cycle time can be as short as 0.5s/pick.
In the Playmobil application the MiniFlex handles 1200 vests/min to the printing machine.
Another clear advantage of the system is the simplicity to teach in new components.
SVIA delivered the system with five components fully programmed and tested; remaining components in the range were programmed in house by the customer in 15 min.
The flexibility of the SVIA system offers new opportunities to automate the feeding of components into Tampoprint machines.
Playmobil and Tampoprint alongside SVIA are partners for the future with many possible applications to share; Toy citizens are definitely not the only one, said SVIA.
• RNA Automation: contact details and other news
• Email this article to a colleague
• Register for the free Manufacturingtalk email newsletter
• Manufacturingtalk Home Page
Search the Pro-Talk network of sites
