Automation keeps manufacturing alive! - Fastems

machine,” says Kent Sandberg, who is in
charge of the investment program.
more advanced tasKs
The first robotized production cell was installed
at the beginning of 2006. It was a
Fastems RPC-20G modular portal robot that
was mounted on a 15-year-old Okuma CNC
lathe. Fastems delivered the complete system
pre-programmed and installation was over
in less than a week. After a couple of days of
training and fine-tuning, the system went
into production.
“The robot cell has functioned almost
perfectly from the very first moment,” comments
operator Tomas Forsberg.
The original idea was that the life of an obsolete
machine could be extended with the
help of a robot and the system could keep
producing at least fairly simple components.
However, the system worked so well that the
robot cell was soon assigned to more advanced
production tasks.
time for inspections
With the success of the first robot cell, the
idea to robotize another machine followed
quickly. The machine next door was an Index
G300 lathe with nine spindles and was
selected to be upgraded. The second Fastems
RPC-20G was installed at the end of 2006,
this time with the aim of fine-tuning a machine
that was used for machining advanced
components with tight tolerances. The products
in this case were defense materials that
required inspection at an individual level.
“I can now manage several machines
and I have time to inspect the products
while the robots are charging and emptying
the lathes,” says Tomas Forsberg.
“We have yet to exhaust the full potential of the robot cell. The limit is set by our imagination,”
says Harry Rajala (left) to which Kent Sandberg agrees.
The process starts by placing the blanks
on pallet trolleys in the cell. The robot picks
up one blank at a time. The control systems
of the robot and the lathe communicate with
each other and the robot loads the lathe with
work pieces. Once machining is complete,
the lathe is emptied and the robot switches
to standby mode for a moment. If the operator
presses a button, the finished work piece
is delivered for inspection through a “letterbox”.
Otherwise, the work piece is placed on
the pallet and the next blank is picked up.
“Production continues even if I do not
have the time to receive the work piece,” says
Tomas Forsberg.
flexiBle productivity
Fastems programs the robot cell on-site. The
basic program is adapted to new products
by operating the robot in manual mode and
teaching it the new operations. The process
is simple and PartnerTech was able to rapidly
change production once the potential of
the system was understood.
Both machines are operated five days a
week in a three-shift. When manufacturing
products that do not need individual inspection,
the magazine is loaded by the last shift
of the week and the machine then runs automatically
until the pallets are empty.
“We have yet to exhaust the full potential
of the robot cell. There is more to be
done. The only limit is our imagination,”
says Harry Rajala.
According to Mr. Rajala, evidence shows
that the investment is producing a better return
in terms of productivity, flexibility and
availability than PartnerTech expected.
The second robot cell was installed on one of
PartnerTech’s more advanced machines, a
nine-spindle lathe.
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