At this year’s Motek trade fair to be held from 6-9 October 2014 in Stuttgart, Mitsubishi Electric together with Engmatec GmbH will be presenting a high-speed screw-fastening station for inline operation as part of an assembly line. Within the system, a Mitsubishi Electric dual-arm SCARA robot from the RP series performs the handling and tightening of the screws using a vacuum suction unit. The compact system can handle ten screws in just 18 seconds (hall 7, stand 7210).
The Engmatec system uses a fastening method based on the pick-and-place principle incorporating vacuum suction units. It also includes a Mitsubishi Electric RP-5ADH robot with corresponding CR1D robot controller. The robot picks up the screws to be handled and tightens them at any position on a switch panel. Thomas Lang, MD of Engmatec GmbH, explains: “Compared to conventional handling where the screw is inserted into the mouthpiece of the screwdriver, the Mitsubishi Electric robot and the integrated vacuum suction cup enable us to speed up the screw-fastening process considerably. The 4-axis robot can also be integrated and programmed very easily.” The screw-fastening system has a cycle time of approximately 0.8 seconds which means that, including handling, it can handle ten screws in 18 seconds. The system controller also accepts the tightening torque and angle of rotation data for each screw. In the application presented here, the Torx IP 8 screws used have a tightening torque of 66 newton centimetres, for example. What is more, the screw-fastening system is not just fast but also extremely compact. Thomas Lang explains: “We use a vacuum cup so that the robot can screw directly to the wall, thus combining the advantages of speed and technical added value for the customer. The dual-arm robot enables us to create a space-saving assembly while guaranteeing optimum performance at the same time.”
The RP-series dual-arm SCARA robots are high-performance systems which have been specially designed for micro-handling during the production of watches, mobile telephone or hearing aids, for example. The RP-5ADH is suitable for handling tasks requiring a load capacity of up to five kilograms and operates with a repetition accuracy of ± 0.01 millimetres in directions x, y and z. Engmatec designs and builds test equipment and assembly systems for worldwide use. Its USP is the way it combines automatic or manual assembly processes with integrated end-of-line test technology. “We use Mitsubishi Electric robots as standard elements in our systems,” says Thomas Lang. “The system that is to be presented at Motek is a customer project that will be supplied to Mexico for a large automotive supplier. Speed, precision and longevity are essential in that industry in particular.” Motek is due to take place from 6-9 October 2014 in Stuttgart. The international trade fair is the world’s leading exhibition for production and assembly automation, feeding technology and material flow systems, rationalisation through handling technology and industrial handling. Mitsubishi Electric will be on stand 7210 in hall 7. eu3a.mitsubishielectric.com/fa