A leading manufacturer of acoustics products has developed a new design for Rail Dampers that are mounted on both sides of the railway tracks to reduce noise. The product consists of a steel bar with Urethane moulded all around it.
Apex Automation and Robotics created and delivered an end-to-end automation solution for the production of the rail dampers with a throughput of more than 100 dampers/hr. The line includes:
- Conveyors for circulating Silicone moulds
- A 6-axis robot with a 3D vision system
- Urethane mixing and dispensing system
A crate of steel bars is placed by the forklift at the front of the line. Belt conveyors are used to circulate a number of Silicon moulds. Each mould can take 2 bars and as the mould reaches the robot, it is referenced and clamped in position. The rectangular steel bars are required to be loaded in the moulds with 1mm tolerance
The 6-axis robot equipped with a proprietary gripper picks up the bars straight off the crate and loads them in the Silicone mould. Since the positions of the bars vary in the crate, a 3D vision system is mounted to the robotic head to determine the exact position of each bar before picking it up. The robot performs the following cycle:
- It takes a scan of the bar
- The positions of the robot combined with the 3D vision system algorithms calculate the X,Y and Z of each bar as well as the rotations
- These coordinates are transmitted to the robot via Ethernet/IP
- The robot then picks up the bar and places it accurately in the mould
After two bars are loaded in the mould, the mould is transferred to the moulding station. An automatic Urethane mixing and dispensing system injects Part A and Part B, after which the filled moulds queue on buffer conveyors to allow the Urethane to cure, Once curing is complete, the moulds return to the front of the line, where the dampers are removed, before being transferred back to the robotic cell.
The use of 3D vision technologies has enabled Apex Automation and Robotics to use robots to automate applications that have been impossible in the past, such as the case of this Rail Dampers production line.
