Focus on small and mid-size series: ATA Gears’ new robot gives a great helping hand
Dedicated, versatile and initially demanding a lot of attention: that’s how one could describe ATA Gears’ new ’employee’, a robot, which can be moved easily from one work station to another, and which the company expects to be a great help, especially in manufacturing small- to mid-size series of small gears. The focus being on improving the throughput and cost efficiency of the tooth grinding process of those small gears by automatic part change, the investment is expected to make part changes faster and reduce downtime.
A specialized turnkey delivery
The new robot came from the Turku-based company Avertas Robotics, an innovative industrial automation company providing full-service robotic solutions. The robot itself was manufactured by Fanuc, the world’s leading robot supplier. As is standard procedure, however, the complete turnkey delivery including several other components and tasks was taken care of by a small and agile local company, in this case Avertas. These tasks ranged from choosing the right robot for the job, managing the robot-to-machine interface, designing the safety systems including CE certification, designing gripping equipment and connecting peripheral devices, such as camera and laser measurements and lighting. The robot was also programmed for the task, including a user-friendly touchscreen user interface. User training and production startup assistance completed the delivery. In the words of ATA Gears’ Product and Process development Manager Gabor Szanti: “ATA Gears acquired the new robot system turnkey from a team of truly specialized robot professionals.”
So just what does the robot do?
The new robot is both flexible and movable. It is installed on a frame resting on four conical sleeves sunk into the floor. This makes it possible to put the robot simply and quickly aside when processing jobs of individual gears. Even better, it can be moved from one machine to another by pallet truck, so the same robot can serve several machine tools – wherever it is needed for a specific ongoing job. ATA Gears also aims to implement the same robot in the 5-axis turning center just opposite the bevel gear grinding machine.
So what does the typical process look like from the robot’s perspective? First, with the help of camera and laser measurements, the robot searches for a part on a pallet. Then it grips the part and takes it to the spindle of the grinding machine. After releasing the part and exiting the workspace, it signals the grinding machine to fasten the fixture and start the automatic grinding cycle. The robot waits for the part to be finished and for the grinding machine to issue the part change order. The robot blows the oil off the part with compressed air, retrieves the part from the spindle and returns it to the pallet. Then it takes the next part from the pallet and repeats the operation – again and again.
Experienced machinists are still in charge
The robot is a good coworker for ATA’s machine operator, who does not only operates the machine itself but also has several other process tasks – preparing the machine and fixture set-up, running and optimizing the grinding process, supervising machine operation, managing gear testing, cleaning, as well as other quality control and documentation. As the robot takes care of the part changes, this frees the machine operator to concentrate on these numerous other tasks. The robot is also always ready for the next part change right at the same second that the preceding part is ready, so we can eliminate time loss while the operator is busy with other work tasks.
The robot can lift parts up to 50 kg, also speeding up the change of work pieces, which would otherwise require handling by crane. ”The robot’s tasks are basic – just changing the part and restarting the machine. The process as a whole is still in the capable hands of our professional machinists,” Gabor Szanti declares and continues: “The investment is definitely a win-win for ATA and our customers, as it will reduce downtime and improve the utilization rate of one of our key machines, so that we can serve our customers better.”