19070 – Robotic seal inspection and assembly station

The machine is designed to automatically identify the seal and load it into the housing of a car starter motor.

Purpose of the device

Recognition involves checking the colour of the gasket (black or blue); loading is carried out using an Epson SCARA robot. The machine operates on a production line where the starter housing is transported on a pallet along a conveyor line several dozen metres long.

Description of operation

Automatic cycle:

• transport of gaskets to the loading station;
• inspection of the gasket colour. An incorrect gasket is removed to the NOK box;
• stopping the pallet at the station and reading the reference from the RFID tag;
• pallet indexing at the station: ensuring the correct position for loading;
• the robot picks up the seal from the bay using a suction head and loads it into the starter housing;
• return of the index and further movement of the pallet;
• post-loading verification, removal of the NOK pallet if necessary;
• repeat the cycle.

Equipment design

VIBRATING FEEDERS

The station is equipped with two vibratory feeders, which facilitate the loading of seals from a cardboard box onto the machine’s belt conveyor. Each container is dedicated to a specific type of seal. The capacity of the feeders ensures autonomous operation of the station for 4–6 hours.

BELT CONVEYOR

The station is equipped with a dual-lane belt conveyor, ensuring the flow of gaskets between the vibratory feeders and the loading bay. Thanks to the use of belts, latches and bumpers, the conveyor ensures the loading of individual, non-stuck-together, non-overlapping gaskets (which have a strong tendency to stick together).

LOADING STATION

The loading station ensures a repeatable position for the robot to pick up the gasket. Additionally, to ensure 100% reliability, the position is monitored by LRZ laser sensors. The station is also equipped with laser sensors for gasket colour recognition.

SCARA ROBOT with vacuum gripper

The gasket is loaded into the housing by an Epson SCARA robot fitted with a vacuum gripper. The gripper has been designed and manufactured to ensure correct positioning of the gasket. Additionally, the gripper features a system for extracting and transporting dust/talc from the gaskets into a sealed container with replaceable bags;

PALLET INDEX

The starter housing moves on the pallets of the production line conveyor. To ensure a repeatable position for loading the gasket, a pallet indexer is required. The indexer consists of a stopper to hold the pallet, an RFID sensor for line traceability, and a base module driven by a pneumatic cylinder;

POST-LOADING INSPECTION AND DISCHARGE OF NOK PALLETS

To ensure 100% correctness of the loaded gasket, the station is equipped with an additional inspection module following automatic loading. The module checks the quantity of gaskets (stack height in the housing) and their colour. If an error is detected, for example due to the operator inadvertently loading an incorrect seal (the operator can open the station), the pallet with the NOK housing is automatically removed from the line – pallet ejection.

Benefits for the customer/user

• fully automated inspection and loading of gaskets;
• foolproof colour inspection via laser sensors;
• very fast loading – cycle time of 3.7 seconds;
• autonomous operation: vibrating feeders need to be refilled only every 4–6 hours;
• automatic management of NOK units – no operator intervention required.