OEM&Lieferant Ausgabe 2/2018 / OEM&Supplier Edition 2/2018

type MH5LS six-axis robot deposits the sleeve quickly and accurately into the workpiece car- rier of the rotary indexing table. The rotary indexing table immediately moves to Station 2. The next step is pneumatic “inser- tion” of the return springs, before a further vi- sion system at Station 3 checks the correct lo- cation and positioning of the springs. The task of Station 4 is to deliver the button and assem- ble the cross bar. After passing empty Station 5 a second integrated QS control takes place at Station 6, by which a number of features are checked. A particularly intricate step is performed at Station 7, where the second YASKAWA six-axis robot performs the final task of fitting the cap. The MH12 picks up a cap with its vacuum gripper and mounts it on the sleeve in an in- genious movement pattern. In this process, in which the cap must be positioned at a prede- termined angle in order to carefully click it into place, the robot must operate with extreme precision. Similarly stringent demands exist at the follow- ing station, at which the robot takes hold of the complete assembled locking sleeves and ejects them via a chute. Here again, the robot takes up the challenge in terms of precision and path accuracy, as Lamprecht stresses: “The removal of the finished part from the work- piece carrier is rather difficult because the sleeve is located at an angle to the horizontal head. The robot cannot simply pull the part vertically out of the workpiece carrier; it must adjust its trajectory to the sloping position of the sleeve, which may vary by up to 13 degrees depending on the component version. Thanks to excellent motion control, the MH12 performs this task with speed and precision, enabling us to adhere to the cycle times.” The gripper system consists of a vacuum gripper and a mechanical two-jaw gripper that only comes into action when faulty parts must be ejected.