Intorex, the Barcelona based specialist manufacturer of CNC turning equipment and five axis CNC machining centres, have recently completed an automation project that has involved the integration of a robot working between two machines that normally would be stand alone items of equipment.
The two machines in question were an Intorex model CKX 1300 hopper fed CNC lathe and an Intorex LNX CNC rotary sander. The brief from the Swedish based chair manufacturer was for the two machines to work automatically in tandem, with no manual intervention by an operator to transfer the parts between the machines.
Both the lathe and the sander where basically standard machines, with the only modifications made to the outfeed of the lathe and the infeed loading of the sander. The main work involved integrating the operating and sequencing software between them and the Yaskawa robot.
All the required work was undertaken and tested in the Intorex factory. The machines have now been installed just under one year and the customer is able to produce four sanded chair legs per minute, with just one operator. Other specialist projects that Intorex have undertaken include modifying one of their TMC CNC machining centres to produce.
Hurley sticks for a customer in Ireland, and a CKX 600 CNC lathe for a UK company producing drum sticks, with the machine being pre-configured to accept a robot and a sander in the future.
Exclusive UK agent JJ Smith report that sales of Intorex machines in to the UK and Ireland continue to be strong, and will be further bolstered by two completely new models of CNC lathe which have just come on line and incorporate a number of innovations that will give added flexibility and increased production output.
These include the ability to turn and sand at the same time, and a router head with tool changer for making a wide range of different machining operations.
0151 548 9000
www.jjsmith.co.uk
