TL Aerotek is known for providing precision components to large aerospace companies. This small job shop has been in business for five years and its continuing growth led the company to move from its original 600-sq.-ft. space to a new shop with seven machine tools in more than 2,000 sq. ft.
With orders flowing in faster than owner Tai Le could fill them, he needed help keeping up with the accelerating demand but didn't want to deal with labor uncertainty.
Le consulted Expand Machinery, which specializes in building machine tool systems. He had been working with Expand Machinery for several years, using a wide range of Expand milling machines, most of which use controls from Mitsubishi Electric.
Ravjeet Singh, Expand Machinery's general manager, suggested automating the process of loading and unloading machines using the LoadMate Plus system from Mitsubishi Electric Automation. LoadMate Plus is an engineered robotic system that can be used for machine tending. Expand developed and integrated a 4 ft. x 4 ft. LoadMate Plus with an RV20 six axis robot arm. It was connected to one of Tai's machine tools, the GenMill 5X-12.
Machine tending and automatic loading/unloading
The LoadMate Plus offers flexible connectivity for plug-and-play machine tending. For communication, all that's required is a connection via Ethernet to integrate the LoadMate Plus with Mitsubishi Electric's M8 Series CNC.
In addition, the system features robot movement programming via Direct Robot Control with CNC software. This allows Le to program and make adjustments on the fly using menus and G-code from the same screen used for the machine tool.
To ensure precise placement of the part to be milled, the robot arm works with a flexible Schunk quick-change pallet system.
"Working with Tai, we chose to focus on a pallet system that allows the robot to pick up parts from the same location each time so you don't have to reprogram the robot from part to part,” said Singh. “We chose to use Schunk for our pallet system needs because of their well-known rigidity, accuracy and durability."
Using this setup, it only takes TL Aerotek 15 minutes to place 10 blanks on the loading shelves. From there, the system automatically loads and unloads the machine. That means Le no longer has to stand by to remove a finished part and load new material. The LoadMate Plus does it all and will keep doing it until the loading shelf is empty.
After implementation at TL Aerotek, the system ran unattended for 24 hours, tripling normal output. Le is now able to complete a month's quota in one week.
Based on these initial results, Le ordered two new five-axis machines to replace two of his four-axis units. These new machines face each other with a LoadMate Plus in between. The LoadMate Plus designed for this application will have a robot arm with a longer reach, making it possible to load both new milling machines with one LoadMate Plus.
See more Automation World coverage of the LoadMatePlus Robot Platform.
