Rospen's robotic system packs in the powder
15 Jan 2000
A robotic handling system designed and built by Rospen is delivering results at a cartridge filling plant where demand was outstripping capacity.
Edwards High Vacuum International makes a range of cartridge filters for removing the airborne toxins and fumes associated with the production of printed circuits.
The company needed to mechanise a labour-intensive filling operation involving the filling by weight of multiple layers of different mineral compounds into a weld-capped metal tube with spacers separating the individual layers.
It opted for a premix station for weighing and blending the bulk minerals prior to delivering them to the cartridge filling plant where they and the spacers are automatically inserted into the tubes.
The premix stage comprises a 750kg discharge station for loading rigid IBCs with cartridge ingredients of inorganic granular chemicals.
Variation of granular size and strength is crucial to the performance of the cartridge, says Rospen. Mixing the ingredients could not be carried out by conventional methods for fear of crushing the granules. To overcome this, Rospen employs loss-in-weight vibratory tray feeders to convey both mediums in ratio to a common IBC.
They are then transferred to vibrating platforms in the filling plant for discharge to further loss-in-weight feeders before discharge down a common chute to the automatic cartridge filling mechanism.
Robot technology ensures measured doses of filter medium are separated by spacers to an accuracy of 0.5 per cent before the completed unit is off-loaded.
What was previously a labour intensive and time consuming process involving weighing, blending and portioning of materials has now become wholly mechanised.
