Keywords
Citation
(1999), "ATT chooses RNA for high precision component handling", Assembly Automation, Vol. 19 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/aa.1999.03319baf.006
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 1999, MCB UP Limited
ATT chooses RNA for high precision component handling
ATT chooses RNA for high precision component handling
Keywords Components, Handling, Parts feeding
A total of 20 high-speed bespoke systems for the handling of small asymmetric filters have now been supplied by RNA Automation Limited to one of the world's leading manufacturers of petrol injector test equipment.
The rapidly increasing demand for petrol injectors has resulted in the need for fully integrated lines which assemble, run-in, calibrate and quality-audit these components. With many decades of experience in the field, Assembly Technology and Test, a member of DT Industries Automation Group, based in the UK in Buckingham, is now one of the leading suppliers of automated lines which today process in excess of 50 million injectors per year, worldwide.
The line provides automatic testing of injectors, which are adjusted, crimped to set and then, as part of the final assembly process, tiny, difficult to handle filters are fitted into each injector (see Plate 5).
The small, irregularly shaped injection filters have to be presented to a fitting station with the correct orientation and at the right moment. For this specialist task, ATT turned to the European market leaders, RNA Automation.
Plate 5 A line for the automatic testing of injectors and (inset) an RNA Automation bowl feeder
The tiny injection filters are presented to the test line by an RNA components-handling system, which comprises a vibratory bowl feeder, a linear feeder, an escapement and a pick-and-place unit.
The stepped-type bowl feeder incorporates tooling to orientate the filters and discharge them via a linear feeder. The components are then moved to a small escapement with "piece-present" sensors from where a pick-and-place unit picks each filter and places it into a hole at the top of the injector.
The system is rated to provide and insert one filter every three seconds. The latest system, comprising two units working in parallel, are destined for Korea. This makes a total of 20, which have been supplied by RNA Automation for injector manufacturers in the USA, Italy and Korea.
"We are looking for a high level of accuracy and reliability", says ATT project manager, Rob Sadler.
"We have specified a failure rate not to exceed one in 1,000, but found that the RNA equipment achieves better than this. We have worked with RNA Automation now for three years and have used a similar configuration of products for each of the 20 projects, with some variations as each system is built, to meet specific customer requirements. The requirement for each successive component-handling system we've had from RNA has been for faster feed speeds than the last and so the specifications are more and more demanding. And each time, RNA has come up with the goods!"
ATT, part of DT Industries, is a global provider of assembly, test and material handling systems. With facilities in the UK, the USA and Germany, ATT serves the international automotive, aerospace and component OEMs and their tier one suppliers.
Sales enquiries to RNA Automation Ltd. Tel: +44 (0)121-749 2566.