Robotic Molding Process

Molding companies are realizing that the molding process can be enhanced through automation. Six-axis articulated robots are popular in injection molding such as loading components and assembling molded parts. Robots are able to blow molding, compression molding, injection molding, plastic molding, and transfer molding.

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Mold­ing is the process of man­u­fac­tur­ing by shap­ing pli­able raw mate­r­i­al using a rigid pat­tern. Some of the most com­mon types of mold­ing per­formed by a robot include blow mold­ing, com­pres­sion mold­ing, injec­tion mold­ing, plas­tic mold­ing, and trans­fer molding.

Robot­ics are becom­ing increas­ing­ly pop­u­lar in injec­tion mold­ing relat­ed process­es, from load­ing com­po­nents to fin­ish­ing and assem­bling mold­ed parts. Six-axis artic­u­lat­ed robots are relied on to unload and process parts down­stream from the mold­er, and can also per­form sec­ondary tasks like in-mold dec­o­rat­ing, in-mold label­ing, and auto­mat­ed insert loading.

Motoman’s robots are being used for insert load­ing work cells for trim­ming and debur­ring due to the lim­i­ta­tions of sim­ple manip­u­la­tors for extrac­tion of mold­ed parts. Six-axis robots can do more in a foot­print. Some of Motoman’s mold­ing robots include the DA9IC NX100, the HP3 NX100, and the SDA20D DX100.

KUKA’s robots are being increas­ing­ly used for mold machine extrac­tion appli­ca­tions. The part is removed from the injec­tion mold­ing machine, and then sec­ondary appli­ca­tions like clip inser­tion, trim­ming, assem­bly, and pack­ag­ing can also be com­plet­ed, offer­ing more flex­i­bil­i­ty. This allows end-users to accom­plish more with a sin­gle invest­ment. Some of KUKA’s mold­ing robots include the KR 30, KR 150110K.

Fanuc has inte­grat­ed in-mold label­ing work cells, where the robot pulls down labels into the injec­tion mold­ing machine, becom­ing a per­ma­nent com­po­nent of the part. Robots can also insert met­al or plas­tic parts into a machine for the mold­ing process. Some of Fanuc’s mold­ing robots include the F‑200iA RJ3iB, the M‑710iC/50T R30iA, and the R‑2000iB/​150U R30iA.

Robot­ic over-mold­ing merges two mate­ri­als to form one cohe­sive com­po­nent. Robots are fre­quent­ly used to over-mold auto­mo­tive tail-light lens­es, man­u­fac­tured by inject­ing dif­fer­ent col­or plas­tics into one machine. 

Fur­ther, robot­ic mold­ing work cells can also per­form son­ic and laser weld­ing. The welder is placed on the end of a six-axis robot, which helps reduce cycle times, a cru­cial achieve­ment in the mold­ing industry. 

Robots​.com pro­vides Inte­gra­tion-Ready Fanuc, KUKA, ABB, and Motoman mold­ing robots. We can offer these robots at a reduced price, new or used. Con­tact us today online or at 8777626881 for more information.

Nov 24, 2013