Robotic Press and Furnace Load System

Project Criteria

AAE North America’s customer produces sintered metal parts used in engines. The automation requirements were to unload parts from a press, de-burr edges, place onto trays, and load into a furnace.  The automation had to be flexible to process 8 different parts.

AAE North America engineered and built a flexible robotic cell.  A robust, 3-axis servo unit first unloads the part from press, weighs it, and places it on conveyor.  Part is transferred to and processed in a de-burring station by pneumatic actuators.

For flexibility in handling various loading patterns and the 8 different part sizes, a robot unloads the part from de-burring station and places it onto furnace trays.  A conveyor system automatically indexes the trays into the furnace.

Project Features

• 720 parts / hour

• 8 different parts with change out tooling

• 3-axis servo actuator unloads parts from press

• Automatic transfer to scale for quality check

• Indexing transfer conveyor

• De-burr station with pneumatic part transfer/flipping/holding

• Automated conveyor tray indexing

• Fanuc 6-axis robot with R-30iB controller for flexible tray loading

• Allen Bradley HMI/PLC controls