Top Reasons to Automate Your Foundry with Robotics

Blis­ter­ing tem­per­a­tures, metal­lic dust, and molten mate­ri­als – any of these fac­tors would con­tribute to a harsh work envi­ron­ment, and a foundry has all three. How­ev­er, these fac­tors have also helped to keep foundries on the for­ward edge of the robot­ic automa­tion frontier.

Typ­i­cal foundry work includes pour­ing melt­ed met­als into molds, trans­fer­ring the molds, break­ing the met­al parts from their molds, and remov­ing mate­r­i­al from the met­al parts to make them uni­form. Foundry robots excel in each one of these applications.

So, why is robot­ic automa­tion ide­al for foundry use? There are sev­er­al rea­sons, but the top five rea­sons are pow­er­ful design, safe­ty, sav­ings, accu­ra­cy, and flexibility.

Safe­ty is one of the most impor­tant fac­tors in foundry work. A wrong move could mean severe injury or death to a work­er. The extreme con­di­tions men­tioned above mean that work­ers deal with con­tin­u­ous threats like burns, heat exhaus­tion, or res­pi­ra­to­ry prob­lems from breath­ing in metal­lic dust. Robot­ic foundry sys­tems keep work­ers safe from these con­di­tions by step­ping in and assum­ing the risk. Foundry robots are required to have an indus­tri­al pro­tec­tion rat­ing (IP 67). They can endure the con­di­tions with ease and work with­out fatigue. Even when the heat is extreme­ly intense, the robot and its end effec­tor can be safeguarded.

Foundry robot­ic sys­tems are designed to be pow­er­ful. Hefty pay­load capac­i­ties and wide work envelopes allow robots to tack­le heavy lift­ing and wide loads, which are com­mon in foundries. This also plays into the safe­ty aspect. By replac­ing work­ers with a foundry robot, work­ers are saved from injuries caused by repet­i­tive move­ments and strain while lift­ing heavy objects. 

Anoth­er great ben­e­fit of using robot­ic automa­tion in foundries is that robots give foundries flex­i­bil­i­ty. They can han­dle a wide range of appli­ca­tions- mate­r­i­al removal, dis­pens­ing, and mate­r­i­al han­dling. Using auto­mat­ic tool chang­ers, these robot­ic sys­tems can switch quick­ly between tasks, which leads to sim­pli­fied, faster pro­duc­tion. Using auto­mat­ic tool chang­ers, these robot­ic sys­tems can switch quick­ly between tasks, which leads to sim­pli­fied, faster pro­duc­tion. The accu­ra­cy of foundry robots just fur­ther improves the flex­i­bil­i­ty and cycles dur­ing appli­ca­tions. Robot­ic automa­ton has top notch repeata­bil­i­ty. This is extreme­ly impor­tant when it comes to han­dling molten met­al. Every move­ment is pro­grammed; every point exact. This lev­el of pre­ci­sion is nec­es­sary, espe­cial­ly when debur­ring and oth­er mate­r­i­al removal applications.

The last, but def­i­nite­ly not least, top rea­son to use robot­ic automa­tion in a foundry is the sav­ings. Incor­po­rat­ing robot­ic automa­tion in your foundry con­serves mon­ey and time. With robots, there is less of a chance of drop­ping or dam­ag­ing parts, and few­er acci­dents mean less finan­cial out­put as well.

Are you inter­est­ed in incor­po­rat­ing robot­ic automa­tion into your foundry? Robots​.com offers a wide selec­tion of foundry robots from Fanuc, Motoman, ABB, Uni­ver­sal Robots, and KUKA. Call Robots​.com today online or 877−762−6881 for more information.