Ellesco renews robotic polishing lines' push to satisfy high-end finishing demand

Such systems undertake grinding, deburring, surface finishing and micro-finishing of simple to complex components. Ellesco has already installed a large number of bespoke production solutions for some of the most prestigious names in UK manufacturing. Spanish firm Autopulit has an established reputation as a deburring and surface finishing solution provider, with an armoury that includes everything from manual belt grinding and polishing machines, rotary machines for finishing round parts, hydraulic coil polishing machines, alloy wheel polishing machines and even transfer machines with 10 working heads for the production of sintered parts. However, it is the flexibility, capability and the ability to obtain consistently high quality surface finishes that has drawn the attention of some of the UK's leading aerospace, automotive, medical, white goods and plumbing manufacturers, reports Ellesco. The consistency of surface finish is of increasing importance to OEM aerospace and automotive manufacturers, for whom impeccable quality levels and meeting minimum quality standards are the norm. Robotic polishing cells from Autopulit are fully bespoke solutions. Upon collecting the parts, the robot feeds parts through belt grinding heads, buff polishing heads and, in some instances, through drilling and threading stations, prior to unloading completed parts. While the Autopulit range is configured to the end user application, the company does manufacture base models that can be extended or configured. For example, the Autopulit CR-60/2UL robotic cell incorporates a loading and unloading station that indexes a magazine of parts, a robotic arm and two belt grinding units to finish the components. For higher production demands, the Autopulit 2 CR-60 is a cell that consists of two robots with four belt grinding units, a large buff polishing unit, two indexed part magazines and a part exchanger between the robots. To complete the finishing of several parts simultaneously, Autopulit has developed its CR-165 manufacturing cell. This fully enclosed production station includes a loading and unloading robot, three polishing heads and a multi-spindle device for completing a number of parts simultaneously. Says Ellesco's managing director, Guy Newton: "What we have found with the globally acclaimed OEMs is that demand for everything from UK manufactured vehicles to aircraft is on the rise. To increase production levels and achieve high quality surface finishes is undoubtedly a challenge. The combined expertise of engineers from Ellesco and Autopulit has delivered remarkable results, whereby a robotic cell can comfortably sit within a production line environment to achieve the surface finishing and deburring quality demanded by OEMs on their high quality components in a production facility."