Robot night shift gives ALM the competitive edge

Consistent demand for existing ALM products and diversification resulted in the need for night shift operations, but, as Andy Hey, ALM products sales and marketing manager, explains: "Finding 'die hard' night shift operators isn't so easy these days and many tasks required fairly straight forward loading and unloading of components into CNC machines. Using a robot seemed the best option for us and already using Fanuc Robodrill CNC machines effectively steered us in that direction." A system was supplied by Fanuc Robotics, comprising a 10 kg payload Fanuc M10-iA robot complete with grippers, guarding and a work input table. A highly compact arm, the M10-iA minimises the amount of space required while allowing several functions, including in process inspection, to be carried out in the same work area. The work input table allows raw material, for example aluminium cubicle connecting blocks 150 by 50 by 10 mm (pictured), to be stacked and arranged in rows to enable continuous unattended operation. Typically, 500 aluminium billets are loaded onto the input table and the machining cell is allowed to cycle through until all blocks have been machined. "From a subcontract engineering capacity viewpoint, the robot has given us the advantage of saying to a customer that we can turn round, say, 400-off components for a next-day delivery, without the cost of a night shift – this makes us very competitive," concluded Mr Hey.