Lathe Tending Robot, April 2023
A customer in Silicon Valley serving a semiconductor client came to us needing a large robot to to tend a new Okuma mill-turn machine they had purchased. A solution was needed quickly, and we were able to deliver a solution 6 months sooner than our competition could, within budget. This system uses a Fanuc R-2000iC/165F arm, dual Schunk PZN 3-finger grippers and quick-change fingers, to allow for fast changeover between parts. We designed and installed a full safety cage, manufactured all custom components in-house, and had the system making parts within 7 working days from delivery.
Mill Tending Robot, June 2023
A repeat aerospace customer of ours in Orange County needed a non-standard system to fit an unusual space constraint to feed their new Brother Speedio 5-axis mill. We were able to accommodate this, designing a custom robot pedestal and parts rack to fit into the tight space. We made use of the new Ethernet/IP connectivity in the Brother D00-series control to give us greater control over machining functions. We’re a big fan of this control - it plays very nicely with our robots. This is our customer’s third Fanuc CRX cobot, and they couldn’t be happier.
Lathe Tending Solution, July 2023
An aerospace plastics customer in Orange County needed to automate a turning process on an older machine for which no auto door or robot interface was available. We successfully automated the machine using a traditional hard-wire method to control the machine from the robot, and adding on a servo door from a Dutch firm, CNC Autodoor. Minimal changeover time was a priority here, so we designed a system capable of loading several different sizes of material using a single gripper and program. Changeover consists solely of a fast-swapping of a Royal collet. Collet chucks are more challenging for a robot to load than a 3-jaw chuck, however we capitalized upon past experience and methods learned to rise to the challenge!