MPS has risen to the challenge of meeting the demanding needs of Rochdale-based Crystal Doors’ requirement for an intelligent, flexible spraying system that is also easy to use.
Crystal Doors had been looking intensively for a spraying solution that would be flexible for its bespoke made-to-measure furniture parts. In addition, it also needed it to be a self-teaching system that would be simple for a non-skilled operative to use. The final box to tick was that it would fit in its current spray facility and also spray adhesive for Crystal Doors 3D lamination in addition to spraying paints.
This challenge was laid down to many machine suppliers and few were able to meet with some or all of these requirements. But the search went on and Crystal Doors found the perfect partner for its new enterprise with MPS Ltd, which was offering the CMA Robotic spray system.
CMA Robotics designs, produces and installs the widest robot and painting plant range available in the market today and supplies complete solutions from planning through to full installation. CMA Robotics manages, along with the customer, the complete integration of the robot painting system into the final plant solution.
Specialised scanning solutions allow piece part recognition for bespoke furniture parts such as curved doors, shaped panels and cabinet fronts, which can be presented to the robot in single or multiple component configurations via a number of transport methods that include line conveyors, carousels or other bespoke solutions. Scanners for hanging lines as used in the window and joinery trades, for example, allow the products to be scanned in line, in any order, with pre-set finishing parameters programmed by the operator, and this data is used to spray the items correctly.
The preliminary discussion with MPS was to have a machine designed, built and installed into Crystal Doors’ current spray facility
“The other challenge,” explains Richard Hagan, managing director of Crystal Doors, “was that we needed to lay full press beds onto his CMA spray cell. So for this, CMA offered the paper belt system, with a spray area of 3000 x 1300mm so the full charge could be loaded for the automatic scanning and spraying cycles.”
The machine would also need to be equipped with two spray pumps, one for the adhesive for the membrane pressed product of which Crystal Doors founded its business on, and the facility for a fast changes over from glue to paint for the new range of painted products and services being offered by Crystal Doors.
Once all was specified and quoted, Crystal Doors proceeded with trials at CMA which proved successful and subsequently the order was placed for the machine. The line was delivered and installed in September last year and up and running just 10 days later.
Equipped with two spray pumps, one for glue and one for paints, the robot has the facility for fast change from paint to glue and back. With the machine up and running on two shifts to keep up with the demands, and success of the newly-painted ranges offered by Crystal Doors, thousands of doors to date have been painted or glued since the installation.
The line now is considered a key factor in the future of Crystal Doors as it offers the ability to provide painted ranges in addition to other products without the need or reliance on highly skilled staff.
“The robot sprays with accuracy, quality and speed, day or night consistently, and is run by my current production staff,” comments Richard. “A great acquisition to the Crystal Doors family, we now produce around 3000 doors per week through the line. The robot can be used both as a reciprocating machine for fast throughfeed spraying as well as the scanning method that allows the robot to identify each part individually and spray accordingly to its shape and thickness.
“For Crystal Doors, the ability to pre-teach the spraying methods enables them to apply special skills for each application. In the case of the adhesive spraying we have a dwell, a short delay between edge spraying to give the adhesives that all important time to soak into the edges and dry before applying the second coat, such is the reliability of the CMA software we are guaranteed this will be done for every PVC wrapped component produced.
“Thus, we all sleep well at night knowing that our vinyl wrapped doors meet all the modern day production requirements and meets all the highest standards required.”
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