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Plymouth, MI -
Many manufacturers put off changing their
manufacturing equipment because
it´s difficult to evaluate
and especially difficult to justify the
expense. Fluid dispensing system changes are
commonly made to production when the product is
in trouble. At this point the troubled
dispensing machinery is usually robbing
production of product quality, uptime, parts
and maintenance, profits and sometimes customer
orders.
 The best time to seriously evaluate a change in
the fluid dispensing process is when the
customer and manufacturing personnel want one
or more of the following: Higher Part Quality,
More Part Variety, Lower Part Cost, Lower
Scrap, Reduced Spare Parts, Reduced
Maintenance, Reduced Labor per Part, or More
Jobs per Hour. Each of these desires can be
addressed with a specific level of fluid
dispensing and automation technology. When the
fluid dispensing process is moved higher on the
application technology scale the part
production results are improved. Delaying
change keeps costs high and invites loss of
business. The equation is simple: Change equals
change.
Production upgrade opportunities include
changing from manual to semi-automatic
dispensing or upgrading from semi-automatic to
fixtured robotic dispensing. Manual dispensing
includes cartridge guns and manual fluid valves
applying fluids. Semi-automatic includes
operator-controlled fluid metering machines.
Robotic dispensing systems include manual-load
part fixtures and automation transferred parts.
Upgrading dispensing technology normally
increases capital cost but lowers production
and part cost.
Evaluating ROI
Evaluate the return on investment of new
dispensing equipment for your process.
Determine the savings per part and per year
considering the costs of your current process
equipment vs. your new process equipment.
It´s amazing how much you
can save and improve production by exploring
new choices in each cost factor. The ideal
payback on new dispensing systems is six to
twelve months.
 Just as its important to define how many
different parts can be handled by an operator
in a manual dispense application
it´s important to define how
many different parts should be processed by a
automation applied fluid dispensing system. For
example, when upgrading to a fixtured-part
robotic dispensing system, evaluate how many
different parts needing fluid dispensed can be
handled by one fixture, how many different
fluids are needed per part and how many can be
combined. Fixtures can be designed to hold
multiple parts where each unique part can
utilize its own fluid dispense program. In some
cases two different fluids can be dispensed
onto the same part by the same robot to
significantly improve process efficiency and
cost.
Solving The Problem
In one case, after evaluation, the manufacturer
selected manual-load robot automation
dispensing for potting and gasketing electronic
modules. They needed to increase part quality
and jobs per hour. Each part had three fluid
applications using two different materials.
Three robot automation fixtures were engineered
and each fixture had its own dispensing system
from a common supply. The company bought a
small 6-axis robot and the dispensing equipment
supplier engineered robot automation fixture,
integrated the entire system and programmed the
robot bead paths. This manual-load robot
automation design provided the highest
precision fluid volume and bead path while
meeting the production rate with the lowest
cost per part.
Another manufacturer wanted an electronic
module and a metal cover applied in two
separate alternating steps with the same
adhesive. They wanted to upgrade from manually
applying adhesives, increase the production
rate and have the electronic module adhesive
applied with consistent precision to reduce
scrap and warranty costs. The company selected
the dispensing equipment supplier to turnkey
engineer the entire system including the robot,
the manual dual-load single dispense station
fixture, meter-mix dispense system,
integration, tooling and bead-path programming.
This design significantly reduced the overall
cost by bonding two parts quickly with one
robot automation system.
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A third manufacturer wanted to upgrade from
manual to semi-automatic dispensing for an
electric coil potting operation. The
company wanted low cost, yet precise,
volume filling and had more than a dozen
different size components. The parts are
batch processed and individually potted.
The process required a precise fluid flow
rate to ensure no voids occur in the coil
to lower scrap cost and warranty issues.
The design included a positive displacement
meter-mix dispense system and an
electrically controlled and integrated
rotary turntable fixture. The operator
loads the tooling for the part, loads the
coil assembly on the tooling and foot-pedal
starts the meter-mix dispense process. The
turntable rotates to the correct speed and
the dispensing system applies the selected
volume in the part. The table stops and the
part is unloaded. This semi-automatic
design uses nozzle position, precise flow
rate, rotational force of the part and
machine controlled fluid volume to ensure
quality potting of the coil and reduce
product failures.
The next step: Define your dispensing
issues and production process requirements.
Contact an experienced dispensing equipment
supplier who can provide expert
engineering, manual-load robot automation
fixtures, system integration and robot bead
path programming. Ask for advice and get
started now to improve your production
dispensing process. |
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