DMC worked with an OEM machine builder to develop a fully automated assembly cell for vehicle torque sensors. The system laser cuts and inspects circuit boards and then assembles them into a molded housing. Two Epson robots and a motion-controlled laser perform all of the required operations.
The only required manual interaction is to keep the machine supplied with the raw circuit boards and molded housings. The 6 Axis robot handles the loading, inspecting, and scrap removal for the raw circuit boards. The SCARA robot performs the inspection and assembly of the individual laser-cut circuit boards.
Since the same controller controls the robots, it was easy to set up zone interlocks to keep the two robots from colliding during the process (since they can share the same space in certain parts of the machine).
The robots can be easily configured to perform different tasks, making the overall system very flexible and expandable. Change-overs are very quick since most of the changes are software-driven, requiring only a few tooling changes and a part type selection on the operator interface screen.