A major U.S. manufacturer of polyester yarn required an automated system to move 40 lb. yarn packages from spinning frames to an inspecting, testing, and palletizing area. All the yarn varieties produced across the multi-acre spinning floor looked alike, but they differed in formulation and filament count. Data tracking would be required to prevent mixing the product between spinning and packaging. A spindle of 6 yarn packages would finish every 30 seconds, and they needed to be removed quickly.

A leading medical device customer wanted to minimize operator errors in tracking part progress and the number of reject parts these errors were producing. They had previously used manual methods for handling and tracking processes, recording data by hand that included the part history, part location, and number of times the part had cycled through each production process. To solve the tracking issues, the JR team automated a part handling method and developed a data tracking system.

Our customer needed a machine designed and built to meet international standards for assembly and testing of small parts. Working within a tight budget, and with a required 8 second cycle time, the JR team came up with a creative solution that exceeded all expectations.

Supply an insert molding solution to deliver five different sets of components to overhead robots for loading into an injection molding machine while meeting the following requirements:

• Feed eight hours’ worth of bearings without using a vibratory system
• Interface with two injection molding machines running independently of one another with multiple variants of product
• Design an EOAT that could load and unload multiple components within a mold cavity
• Integrate fenceless overhead safety zones