Assembly Planbook - June 2008 - (Page 26)

Assembly in Action Fixturing Adhesives for Faster Production. Keeps wire harness sleeves in place building our own cells…. ROI is pretty fast this way. Running two shifts, it’s been only a little over a year.” For more on robotic assembly, visit www.densorobotics.com or call 888-952-7502. Standardized Platforms Improve Production Secure electrical components Hold down rubber gaskets By replacing a human operator with a robot, Surefire LLC cut cycle times at its laser engraving station in half. Keep your production line moving with Glue Dots® fixturing adhesives. Instant-bonding Glue Dots® allow you to quickly preposition items until final fixturing or assembly is completed. Glue Dots® is a registered trademark of Glue Dots International. ©2008 Glue Dots International Automated and desktop applicators available. Find your fixturing solution at www.gluedots.com or call 888.688.7131. Applied Productivity tightens the retainer ring into the cap. The robot then inserts the drive stud, spring holder and spring into the cap assembly, and presents the assembly to a press, which ﬁts the spring into the spring holder. Finally, the robot removes the completed assembly from the press and places it into a parts box on the outgoing parts shuttle. The new cell takes up much less ﬂoor space than the multiple semiautomated stations previously used, and can be run by a single operator—the same one operating the laser-marking cell. Cycle times have been cut in half, from 76 seconds to 38 seconds. Up to now, all systems integration has been done in-house, with most parts fabricated in the company’s own machine shop. “In-house integration isn’t for everyone, of course, but for us it had a lot of advantages,” says Sureﬁre vice president of assembly operations Daniel Fischer. “The robots themselves were easy to set up and program, especially using DENSO’s 3D ofﬂine simulation software. And naturally we saved a considerable amount of money by designing and ega Pumps LP (Eatontown, NJ), a subsidiary of MegaPlast GmbH (Villngen-Schwenningen, Germany), manufactures airless metered pump dispensers used in the medical device and cosmetics industries. Established in 2000, the company initially had trouble keeping pace with the standards of its parent company in terms of quality and efﬁciency. For example, its assembly processes required more employees and experienced far longer changeover times between product types than in Germany. The company’s multiple assembly stations, which run 24 hours a day, ﬁve days a week, were also inefﬁcient in terms of use of space. “The [assembly function] was made up of separate stations stretched out over a large footprint, which made loading and running a much more labor intensive operation than we wanted,” says Mega Pumps operations manager John Murtagh, summing up the situation. To ﬁx these problems, Mega Pumps implemented a series of standardized Flexcell automated assembly modules from automated equipment manufacturer Mikron Corp. (Aurora, CO). The result was lower labor costs, a substantially reduced footprint and dramatically reduced changerover times. Because the company also has a number of Mikron units at work in Germany, it is now better able to compare process performance across multiple facilities. “It made sense to try to keep the same continuity of machinery between sister companies,” Murtagh says. “We like to impress on our customers that we use the exact same M 26 ASSEMBLY / June 2008 www.assemblymag.com http://www.densorobotics.com http://www.gluedots.com http://www.assemblymag.com

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Assembly Planbook - June 2008 Contents Editorial Bonding Lines Quality in Assembly Assembly Lines Assembly in Action Fastening or Bonding? Loose Lips Sink Assembly Systems DFMA Cuts Downstream Costs Robots Lend a Hand Products Advertisers Index Classified Leading Lean

Assembly Planbook - June 2008

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