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A typical assembly task on a Phasa 40/80 machine
– a complex car door panel comprises various components which are welded into position.
Phasa has recently enhanced its specialist plastic component
joining machines by employing a key servo-based motion control
system in place of a pneumatic actuator. The servo enables
several seconds to be shaved off the assembly time of complex
car door panels, significantly increasing productivity. The servo
technology repays its investment after just a couple of months.
Phasa manufactures standard and custom machines to
automate the entire door panel assembly process – from
inserting the thermoplastic mouldings into the components
being joined, to selectively heating, forming and cooling them.
The principal advantage of the servo approach is that by using
closed-loop control it is capable of fully programmable multi-
stop positioning, compared to the end-to-end positioning of
standard pneumatic cylinders. This results in faster and more
accurate placement of the assembly nest, reducing the overall
processing time.
In addition to providing excellent programming flexibility,
“A further advantage of using Festo servo drives is that they
facilitate the capture of timed process parameters for every part
made. This is vital to our customers’ quality management
procedures, enabling the data to be networked to a central
server system and logged against the bar code for that particular
part, providing a complete manufacturing record. This is
Increased throughput
Servo-motion control slices critical seconds off plastic joining machines for car doors
The main assembly nest platen on Phasa's 40/80
machine is moved by a
Festo servomotor and toothed belt axis.
especially important in the automotive sector, where products
need to be traceable throughout their lifecycle” says Terry
Elvidge, Phasa's Operations Director.
www.phasa.co.uk