Automatic sorting station – Automation system from Schneider Messtechnik

Schneider Messtechnik has developed an automatic sorting station with a collaborative robot for the SIK Group. See in the video how this individual solution works and what positive effects it has on the process flow at the SIK-Group! SPOKEN TEXT: The SIK-Group from Rhineland-Palatinate in southwest Germany manufactures small cylindrical components from high-performance polymers which are used, inter alia, in medical technology. For these workpieces, the end customers require complete monitoring of the dimensional and geometrical accuracy, the circumference and the surface quality. The measurements are carried out and documented with a WM1 series measuring microscope from Schneider Messtechnik, using the SAPHIR measurement and evaluation software. Until the end of 2016, the workpieces were measured manually in groups of ten and then sorted by hand. The increasing demand for the products quickly brought this process to the limit of its efficiency. As a solution, Schneider Messtechnik developed an automatic sorting station with a robot for the SIK-Group, which has complemented the WM1 since 2017. Due to its compactness, the robot cell could be easily integrated into the fully air-conditioned measuring room. The measuring instrument and robot act autonomously and are each controlled via SAPHIR, which also ensures fast data transmission. This is how the optimized process works: Up to one hundred measuring objects are placed on a Plexiglas pallet. The pallet is then fixed at a defined stop position on the WM1. When the measuring program is started, all workpieces are measured automatically and the logged measurement data is transferred to the robot controller. As soon as the measured pallet has been moved to the sorting station, the automatic sorting begins: depending on the circumference and the dimensional accuracy, the robot moves the individual workpieces with a pneumatic gripper into the ten containers provided for this purpose. The commissioning of the automatic sorting station led to a significant improvement in speed and process stability. Manual reading and sorting errors were completely eliminated.