Up until now, users in the metal and plastics processing industries often faced a difficult choice: With CNC lathes and milling machines, one opted either for the largest possible variance or for large volumes, i.e., high quantities. An innovative solution from the Netherlands makes both possible and simultaneously lowers the threshold for automation. In the servo-controlled gripper jaws, brushless DC-servomotors with integrated speed controller from Faulhaber provide the necessary precision and reliability.
Dutch company BMO Automation started in 2008 with the vision of a significantly more effective loading of CNC lathes and milling machines. Customers, mainly from the metal and plastics processing industries, can make use of modular complete solutions for the machining industry characterized by high-quality, user-friendly, and flexible automation solutions. Working in collaboration with Faulhaber, the result was a servo gripper that is connected to a robot arm in the robot cells. These cells are used for the automatic loading and unloading of CNC lathes and milling machines.
With its robot cells, BMO enables automated production of varying batch sizes with quantities as small as a single unit.
“Performance at BMO is defined as flexibility² times productivity. Using the servo gripper developed by us, flexibility is increased significantly and customers can automate for batch sizes as small as one. This is the future,” said marketing manager Maarten van Bun. “A simple robot or cobot performs the same job 1,000 times. But we believe that the future is more likely to be the automation of smaller product series in a single pass. We call this multi-batch automation. We can also automatically manufacture 1,000 parts, but split into multiple series with low volumes. The result is both high mix and high volume.”
The margins in the manufacturing of small quantities are generally higher than in mass production. At the same time, however, it is more personnel- and cost-intensive if the workpieces need to be manually loaded between individual turning and milling processes. Thus, a solution that achieves both high variances as well as high volumes when using CNC lathes and milling machines in the metal and plastics processing industries is a game changer. For their approach, BMO Automation combines the advantages of pallet automation with the option of also being able to load individual workpieces fully automatically.
This is made possible by, among other things, servo-controlled gripper jaws whose precision and reliability are guaranteed by Faulhaber drives. In the servo gripper, a Faulhaber motor drives a gear spindle that is part of a linear guide system. The gripper fingers, connected to the guided blocks, thereby move to the desired position for the product that is to be loaded into the CNC machine. The dimensions of the workpiece can change following the turning or milling process. Here, the servo gripper automatically adapts the position of the gripper fingers and does so without changing the loading and unloading cycles. As a result, it is not necessary to change the gripper.
“Harco Hermans, responsible for research and development for us, knew Faulhaber from previous projects, where he had very good experiences with the Motion Control products,” said van Bun. The appropriate motor was selected using the Drive Selection Tool on the Faulhaber website. At the same time, BMO Automation received support from Faulhaber, for example, in checking the script files for communication with the BMO Intelligent Control Software.
Development lasted approximately one year, including a two-month test phase with reference customers. The biggest challenge was in integrating a reliable solution that is available in the smallest possible dimensions with a low weight and thereby has a minimal impact on the load capacity of the robot.
A concentration in the area of CNC automation, many years of experience and good contact with manufacturers of CNC machines enables complete integration of robot automation in machining production. “CNC automation increases productivity, reduces processing time, and offers a way to avoid issues associated with the shortage of specialists,” said von Bun.
MORE INFO www.faulhaber.com
