Aspreciseasa
Swisswatch
Faster palletisingwith thedelta robot EXPT
TheSwisswatch industryprotects the
legendary reputation
of itswatcheswith
thequality label “SwissMade”. This level of quality canonlybeachievedwith fast
andaccurateautomationequipment. This ledAmaxAutomationAG to createa
multifunctional palletiser –with roboticandhandlingsystemssuchas the ready-
to-install delta robot EXPT from Festo.
A
ccording tosurveys, consumers
fromall over theworldare
willing topayup to50%more
for awatch if it carries the
quality label “SwissMade”.This label also
means, according to legislationby the
Swissparliament, that in termsof
production costsmore than60%of these
finewatchesmust havebeen
manufactured inSwitzerland.
This isoneof the reasonswhy theSwiss
watch industry is carryingoutmoreand
moreof theproductionsteps forwatches
andwatchparts inSwitzerland. Another
reason is that risingwage costsare
making thesuppliers in lowwage
countries lessand lessattractive. Coupled
with this is the fact that these countries
often cannot attain the reproducibility
required for sophisticated, handmade
parts. Therewerealsoquality lossesdue
to theprecisionstampedpartsbeing
handledasbulkmaterial. This led tomore
wastageandhigher cleaning costs.
Byproducing in itshomemarket, the
Swisswatch industrybenefits from faster
andshorter transport routesandsimpler
production control. Thepalletisers
suppliedby theSwissspecialmachine
builderAmaxensureaccuratelysorted
andpreciselystampedparts for further
processingsuchaselectroplating,
painting, padprintingandassembly. The
highprecisionpartsaredifferent for each
watchmodel andeachbrandandare
extremely thin,witha thickness in the
rangeof tenthsof amillimetre.
Maximumaccuracy
Themultifunctional palletiser isvery
flexibleand fast.Witha throughput of 120
partsperminute, it canset downup to
elevendifferent small parts insixdifferent
lattice traysor twodifferent JEDEC trays.
Maximumprecision
is requiredwhen inserting thewatchparts.
Themachine canbeeasilyset up for other
partsvia teach-inusing the control panel
and thesoftware. Thesubsequent steps
in theprocess require theparts tobeset
down in the trays toahighdegreeof accur
acy. Thepartsmust alwaysbe right side
up in the trays. Two integratedvision
systemsandaspeciallydeveloped
turningsystemensure that only correctly
orientedpartsareset down.
Issue27
trends inautomation
Synergies
28
–
29
