News: 20/10/2003

Garoll hands in to Ceràmicas Gala, Spain, a robotized production unit for stick-on-rim closets.

Garoll has handed in at the end of October an automatic unit for the production of stick-on-rim closets to Ceràmicas Gala, Burgos, Spain. This unit has the capacity of producing up to 340 pieces in 24 hous, and its high operativity is mostly due to the use of two handling robots, that serve the casting machines, that fulfils all activities related to the pieces' demoulding.
The machinery that makes up this unit allow the execution in an automatic cycle of the following operations:
· High-pressure casting of the rim part
· High-pressure casting of the body part
· Robotized demoulding of the rims
· Sticking slip distribution on the rims
· Sticking of the rim to the body part thanks to the demoulding robots
· Demoulding of the cast pieces
· 180° pieces' rotation, positioned on their foot
· automatic feeding of the manual fettling positions

The flexibility of this unit is maximized by choosing a double-mould independent machines. The independency of the production processes of these machines, and the independence of the installed moulds, have the advantage of installing and producing also different type of models on the same machines. This allows also for the optimization of the production cycle for each machine with relation to the installed moulds.

Main components:
· Nr. 2 high-pressure casting units HPC-402/4: casting of four WCs' body parts (each unit casts two pieces at a time)
· High-pressure casting unit HPC-201/170: casting of the rim parts
· First IRB 6650/125-3.2 robot that serves the casting machines: this robot demoulds the rims from the 201casting machine, distributes the sticking slip on each rim and deposits them, ready for the following body demoulding operations. As last, it sticks the rims to the body parts and demoulds them from the closest moulds.
· Second IRB 6650/125-3.2 robot that serves the casting machines: this other robot sticks the rims and demoulds the pieces from the moulds closest to it, rotates of 180° the pieces and loads/unloads the manual fettling stations.

The following is the production process:
a) the starting sequence of the 3 machines is handled by the demoulding robot that, with a cycle time control routine, guarantees the non-contemporaneity of the working phases, therefore respecting of a constant ad predetermined sequence of the operations that will be carried out by the machines and the robots.
b) This starting sequence gives the go to the rim casting machine. This machine closes the moulds and begins the phase of high-pressure casting of the 4 rims:
- Mould filling
- Wall creation
- Emptying
- Pieces' hardening
c) on this routine syncronization basis, the robots command the beginning of the casting phase of the two other casting machines, that, at their turn, will carry out the casting cycles in an automatic way independently on each of the 4 installed moulds:
- Mould filling
- Wall creation
- Emptying
- Pieces' hardening
d) the first machine that ends the casting cycle is the rim machine, which opens the 4 moulds at the same time and, when it has reached the open-moulds position, sends a ready message to the robot for demoulding operations.
e) The first robot demoulds the rims with a special tool from the HPC-201 machine, and positions them on the racks.
f) Later, this same robot takes one by one all the rims on the demoulding plates and positions them under the sticking slip distributor. When the sticking slip has been distributed, every rim is positioned back again on their respective rack position.
g) When the HPC-402 machines have finished the casting phase, both open the lower and top pistons, sending a signal to the robot
h) At this point, both robots, having already loaded one rim each, position themselves under one of the HPC-402 machines for the demoulding operation. In this way, the demoulding of two pieces for each machine is made contemporaneously, thus reducing the cycle time of the unit.
i) The HPC-402 opens up the two lateral movable parts, leaving free the pieces on the demoulding plates on the robots. When this operation comes through, and the pieces have been removed from the machine, the cycle of the HPC-402 machine restarts for the following mould self-cleaning phase.
j) After the demoulding, both robots positon the demoulded pieces on the deposit racks for the successive operations.
k) The second robot, when the first fettling operations are through, positions the piece on the 24 positons pre-drying deposit.
l) This same robot takes one by one the pieces from the pre-drying deposit and positions them on the first manual fettling station, for removal of excess sticking slip and foot fettling.
m) At the end of the cycle, and after the pre-drying period of the pieces (usually 1,5hrs), takes the piece from the deposit, rotates it 180° to the on-foot position; the piece is then unloaded on the second manual fettling station for the final piece fettling.

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