Automotive Parts Palletizing
Our iron foundry customer needed a solution that would take brake rotors and similar parts and cast, grind, palletize and get them ready for shipment. Each part has a specific pallet pattern; sometimes requiring the rotors to be nested by flipping them ahead of the robot. Each pallet has one rotor type and plywood separator sheets need to be added to some during the palletizing process to aid in the overall pallet stability. All pallets need to be strapped and labeled in a separate process prior to shipment.
The MESH solution included a FANUC R2000iC 125L robot. This 6-axis robot with its long reach (over 10ft) and 125kg (275lb) payload capacity allowed MESH to have two pallet positions in the cell and two-part infeed conveyors. MESH designed a steel weldment baseplate and riser to mount the FANUC robot. A 3-jaw ID gripper end-of-arm tool was designed to grip on or two parts at a time.
Our infeed system included two lanes of powered belt conveyor – one for delivery of rotors directly from the grinding deck without flipping and the other dedicated to always flipping the rotor prior to arriving at the dead stop pick position for the robot. Our system control package included a Rockwell safety PLC and HMI package.
- FANUC R2000iC 125L
- Steel weldment baseplate and riser unit
- End-of-arm tool with two grippers for rotors and vacuum tool for spacers
- Rockwell safety PLC and HMI package
- Electric motor driven flipper
- Six sections of roller conveyor
- One pallet dispenser
- One spacer pick and place mechanism
- Nine pallet conveyor sections
- One transfer cart with one powered roller conveyor top
- One floor detail
- One safety fence with one (2) man gates
- 84-inch-tall steel wire mesh safety fence with steel vertical posts anchored to the floor
- Two light curtains
- Operates with 99% plus up time.
- One pallet completed every 28 minutes.
- Cycle time of 8 seconds per trip.
