Machine Tending for Carpet Tile Manufacturer

Our carpet tile manufacturer customer needed an automated solution to load and unload a carpet tile press. These tiles are made in one large format, the master tile, and cut to size using a die and press system called a planker. There are two possible cut tile sizes made from the master tile.

The customer was manually tending the planker, requiring a skilled operator to pick an incoming tile from a pallet, carry it to the load side of the planker, and delicately load the die set. After the planking process, individual tiles were removed by hand and placed on a pallet. This tedious process created ergonomic issues for the employees.

The MESH solution included two FANUC R-2000 125L 6-axis robots, two vision systems to detect a marker on the incoming tile, a regrip stand for each robot, and an end-of-arm tool for each robot with delicate motion capabilities similar to human operators.

One robot was placed on each side of the press, and the press was automated with shuttles that move in and out of the working area. These robots picked directly from the incoming pallet, positioned the tile in the regrip stand, moved the tile to the die, and signaled the shuttle to feed the die into the press. The second robot performed the same tasks on the opposite side of the press.

The MESH shuttles were programmed to automatically take turns at the press work area. While a tile was being planked in the press, each robot handled tiles either in preparation for the next load cycle or repalletizing the cut tiles after planking.

The robotic loading and unloading system provided consistent throughput for the customer. The precision and repeatability of the robots allowed the loading of the die to be fault-free, achieving results as good or better than manual operations. The efficiency of the press dramatically increased over the human-loaded approach due to balanced cycle times on both sides of the press.