Are You Ready for 2025?
The Association for Manufacturing Technology strongly urges all manufacturers to automate their operations by 2025 or face unprecedented labor shortages.
Experienced machine-tool operators are retiring in record numbers, taking their depth of knowledge with them. Many manufacturers are already finding that it’s hard to hire younger, experienced people to replace them. As a result, automation is quickly becoming a necessity.
Kaufman Manufacturing has extensive experience in designing and implementing many types of automated and semi-automated manufacturing solutions – which we tailor to the needs of our customers. We offer a combination of machine tool, controls and integration expertise that automation houses can’t match.
Below are some examples of our work.
Vibratory Bowl Feeding System
This type of feeding system utilizes vibration to align and feed small parts in production lines. From there, they move on to the escapement assembly, where they are picked and loaded into the machine tool.
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Centrifugal Bowl Feeding System
This type of feeding system uses a spinning disc inside the bowl to move and align the piece parts with centrifugal force. From there, they move onto a horizontal conveyor to the escapement, where they are picked and loaded into the machine tool.
Semi-automatic Palletized Conveyor System
For this type of system, the operator loads the piece parts onto a palletized conveyor system. The pallets move to a pick-up point where a pick-and-place system grabs the parts and loads them into chucks for machining and threading, without operator interaction.
Pick and Place Loading System
For challenging quick cycle time requirements, two pick-and-place systems work together to load parts into a machine tool. The first system grabs parts from a conveyor and places them into a shuttle that can hold multiple parts. When it’s full, the shuttle moves into position for the second system to grab all parts and deposit them into chucks for machining.
Robotic System
This video demonstrates the flexibility of robotic solutions. A hopper elevator deposits parts into a vibratory bowl feeder to supply properly-oriented parts. A robotic arm then picks and loads them into the machine tool. Depending upon the cycle time requirements, one robot can be used for both loading and unloading and other outside operations as required.