Automation
NPE News Wrap-up: Robots
From micro to maxi, from simple sprue pickers to sophisticated six-axis models, NPE had it all. A raft of new robots, faster and smarter than ever, will help make automation an irresistible choice for U.S. molders.
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Greater Pickings in Robots for Injection Molders
The newest crop of robot automation for injection molding machines, displayed recently at the Platex show in Osaka, Japan, and the Plast-Ex Show in Mississauga, Ont., continue the trend toward six-axis jointed-arm models and improved servo-driven, beam-mounted units seen at last year's NPE show in Chicago. The latest introductions also include new controls for servo-driven robots, new units designed to work in palletizing cells, and a range of new sprue pickers in servo and pneumatic models.
Read MoreParts Handling Is No Sweat With New Automated packing Systems
Two makers of parts-removal robots recently introduced examples of labor-saving equipment.
Read MoreWhere Robots Are Headed
If the big show in Chicago was any indicator, linear servo drives and jointed-arm designs may be the next trends in robots for injection molding.
Read MoreOutfitting Your Lab: Part I - How to Buy Melt Indexers
This first installment in a series on buying commonly used lab equipment highlights how computerization and automation have improved the accuracy and repeatability of melt-flow testing.
Read MoreMolders' Guide to Do-It-Yourself Robot Tooling
An injection molding robot is no better than its end-of-arm tooling (EOAT). All the potential benefits of robots--increased productivity, quality, and safety, as well as reduced scrap--are influenced by the effectiveness with which the EOAT does its job. End-of-arm tooling may perform tasks as simple as sprue picking and demolding or as advanced as degating, insert loading, parts reorientation, and assembly.
Read MoreGet Smart About Metal Detectors
Whether you are recycling plastic goods or processing virgin materials, producing a product free from metal contaminants is more important today than ever. Trends to thinner walls, tinier hot-runner nozzles, and more costly and sophisticated machinery and tooling mean that even the smallest piece of tramp metal can cause expensive problems.
Read MoreSmart Manufacturing Means 'Fix It Before It's Broke'
If you want to get the most out of your plant, you need to concentrate on preventing problems, not fixing them once they've occurred. That's the basic concept of "pre-emptive process control," which is the aim of software and hardware options recently introduced for the Source 1.3 CIM system from Hunkar Laboratories Inc., Cincinnati.
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