Injection Molding Machine Tending Robots

Machine Tend­ing robots are pri­mar­i­ly respon­si­ble for ensur­ing a machine is func­tion­ing prop­er­ly. They can also feed parts in and out of the machine. Robots that tend injec­tion mold­ing machines are an alter­na­tive to human man­pow­er. Some parts in mold­ing machines are sim­ply too large for a per­son to unload, for exam­ple. Injec­tion mold­ing machines are among oth­er machine tend­ing appli­ca­tions, such as die-cast­ing machines and machine tools.

The Fanuc R2000iC/​165 robot was used in a ful­ly auto­mat­ic stand­alone injec­tion mold­ing sys­tem. This 6‑axis robot has a 165kg pay­load and an R30iA con­troller. It boasts cus­tom end-of-arm tool­ing with a Robo­hand 3 jaw pneu­mat­ic grip­per. It is also equipped with an iRVi­sion 3DL sen­sor. These fea­tures allow the R2000iC/​165 mod­el to depal­letize and restack, pick the prod­uct and place it into the pre-heater, pick it from the pre-heater and place it into the injec­tion mold­ing machine, pick it from the machine and place it on the trim sta­tion, and final­ly repal­letize it at the end of the process. This tedious, and often dan­ger­ous, process is made sim­ple with an auto­mat­ed tend­ing solution.

ABB​’s IRB 1600 was designed for quick, accu­rate han­dling oper­a­tions. It can bend back­wards and is steam-wash­able with an option­al IP 67 clas­si­fi­ca­tion. Four ver­sions of the robot are avail­able, and it is the strongest robot in its class. It can reach 700mm below its base, and its arm and wrist design ensures easy part extrac­tion from the injec­tion mold­ing machine. It is ide­al for tend­ing injec­tion mold­ing machines, and can do so with an improved cycle time in load­ing/unload­ing injec­tion mold­ing machines with sizes from 100 – 250 tons. The IRB 1600 can also be used for post pro­cess­ing appli­ca­tions like assem­bly, label­ing, and qual­i­ty control.

Mack Molding’s South­ern Oper­a­tions select­ed KUKA to be their 6‑axis robot­ics sup­pli­er for injec­tion mold­ing sys­tems. A vari­ety of KUKA mod­els will be used to han­dle Mack Molding’s machine tend­ing for injec­tion mold­ing machines. KUKA’s 6‑axis mod­els sup­port pay­loads rang­ing from 3 to 570 kg, and will be able to han­dle machines rang­ing from 500 to 3350 tons. Their reach­es range from 635 to 3326 mm. KUKA was cho­sen because its robots are most geared toward the injec­tion mold­ing industry.

Robots​.com offers a vari­ety of machine tend­ing injec­tion mold­ing robots. Con­tact us at 877−762−6881 to find out how to inte­grate one from our inven­to­ry onto your fac­to­ry floor.