Drake Manufacturing recently delivered a fully automated pallet changing and robotic loading system for its line of CNC linear motor external thread grinders. This particular machine, a GS:TE-LM200, is for production grinding taps from M1 up to 200mm diameter x 330mm grind length (350mm overall length). The pallet changing system can hold up to 9 pallets of tool blanks for unattended machine operation. Blanks are picked and placed from the pallet via robot. The robot’s gripper removes a finished tap from the chuck then swivels and places in a new blank ready for probing and grinding. In addition, Drake robot loader systems can be fed from stationary pallets, trays, conveyors, and other part handling configurations. If there is no flute-to-square timing on the customer’s blanks, an integrated probe system can rapidly probe each blank to find the cutting edges. PartSmarttm programming allows fast setups. For more information call Jim Vosmik at (330) 847-7291 or go online to [www.drakemfg.com].
