Customer Demands

Grundfos A/S, a world leading pump manufacturer, demanded a flexible solution to pick rotor cans directly from pallet.

• The rotor cans are stacked in 8 layers with semi structured and random orientation.
• The bin-picker should be able to pick the rotor cans without the need for intermediate handling station.
• The solution should be able to maintain operator free and continuous operations on the main production line.
• The solution should trigger an automated separation sheet removal sequence when a rotor can layer is empty.
• The solution should be able to pick rotor cans in all random 3D orientation.
• Due to the surface finish of rotor cans, gentle handling is needed during bin-picking.
• The solution should feed a rotor can to the main production line non-stop every 10 sec. which required average cycle time of 9.5 sec.
• A maximum of 4 rotor cans are allowed in the pallet after emptying all 8 layers with a total of 2640 rotor cans.

Success Story

Scape Technologies delivered the SCAPE Bin-Picker cell that meets all the customers’ automation needs. The following are the salient features of the solution:

• Operator free and continuous binpicking of 2640 rotor cans from the 8 layers stacked inside 4 pallet frames. Scape Bin-Picker triggers the robot to remove the separation
  sheet when a layer is empty.
• A buffer conveyor belt ensures continuous operations during separation sheet removal and empty pallet box replacement.
• To support an overall average cycle time of 9.5 sec, and maintain sufficient parts on the conveyor, average cycle time as low as 6 secs are achieved.
• An innovative 3 finger gripper is made to cater the gripping needs of the project.
• Gripping of the rotor can implemented with 16 different grip methods to ensure virtually no rotor cans at the end of bin-picking.