Brochure and CD highlight custom designed systems for automated assembly ranging from simple semi-automated workstations to complete integrated assembly systems.
A new brochure and CD are now available to highlight ABP’s capability as a supplier of custom designed systems for automated assembly. AB Precision (Poole) Ltd’s Automation team have an outstanding track record in supplying custom designed assembly systems to many sectors of UK manufacturing industry, including the demanding medical device and automotive sectors. Equipment supplied range from simple semi-automated workstations to complete integrated assembly systems using linear, rotary and robotic transfer.

A new brochure highlights some of the systems and processes the company has used, and it is accompanied by a CD showing some of the machinery in operation.

‘When preparing our new brochure we also made the decision to produce a CD featuring video clips.

Photographs can tell part of the story, but video can show the whole process without the need for lengthy explanations.’ said Application Engineer Andrew Hill.

The CD shows linear, rotary and robotic handling systems the company has produced, and copies are available direct from the company.

AB Precision, a leading supplier of special purpose systems for automated assembly, have launched their enhanced website.
AB Precision, a leading supplier of special purpose systems for automated assembly, have launched their enhanced website. The site now includes references to recently supplied systems and links to video clips of machines in operation. ‘We have an excellent track record in winning repeat business from our existing customers, and a healthy order book; but to continue to grow we need to expand our customer base.

The web is often the first point of contact with new clients and the enhanced site will give them a better understanding of our experience and capabilities’ says Business Manager Brian Gillett.

ABP supply custom designed assembly systems to many sectors of UK manufacturing industry, including the demanding medical device and automotive sectors.

Equipment supplied range from simple semi-automated workstations to complete integrated assembly systems using linear, rotary and robotic transfer.

A new ‘world-class assembly line’ for one of the world’s leading pump manufacturers also calibrates and tests of over 200 different types of pump.
Precision Engineering in Kent have recently completed the final stage of a new ‘world-class assembly line’ for one of the world’s leading pump manufacturers. The complete assembly line caters for the assembly, calibration and test of over 200 different types of pump. Substantial cost savings have been easily achieved from providing reduced operator levels, cycle times, reject rates and down time coupled with increased production output and quality - a single pump can be assembled in less than 60 seconds! The project was completed in 3 stages: a.

Stage 1 - Main Assembly Line.

b.

Stage 2 - Calibration and Test Machine Line.

c.

Stage 3 - Finish Off / Leak Test Line.

Each stage was completely designed, manufactured and developed by Precision Engineering and all three lines have been fully interfaced together with full data acquisition connected directly to the customer’s network for quality and production analysis.

The line consists of a wide variety of processes and equipment including: a.

200m of conveyor system.

b.

100 individual component pallets.

c.

20 bespoke ‘functional test machines’.

d.

DC tightening tooling.

e.

PC control systems.

f.

Various assembly techniques.

g.

Automatic line configuration using bar coding and RF tagging.

h.

Batch sizes from 1 to 10,000 are easily dealt with.

In addition over the past 12-months Precision Engineering has been increasing its activities in Build to Print projects.

‘Customers who already have existing machine designs but do not have the manufacturing capabilities, man power or order book volume have benefited from providing us with designs / drawing sets ready for manufacture, assembly and test’, says Rick Aitchison, Sales Manager at Precision Engineering.

An innovative new design of rolling element linear motion bearing can reduce the cost of implementing product transfer lines and linear transportation systems without compromising on performance.
Unimatic has introduced an innovative new design of rolling element linear motion bearing that can reduce the cost of implementing product transfer lines and linear transportation systems without compromising on performance. Highly cost-effective, the Translide linear bearing from NSK combines a high capacity with high levels of dust proofing and a maintenance-free design, making it ideal for arduous applications in vehicle manufacturing, machine tools, tyre manufacture, wood working machinery and other materials handling tasks. Translide is the result of a newly developed manufacturing process for the construction of the rails, and of a design review of ball slide construction.

It is advances in both these areas that have contributed to the substantial cost reductions over traditional designs.

Overall, Translide benefits from a simplified structure, whilst dust-tight high performance end seals, bottom seals and inner seals are built in as standard to enhance the dust-proof capability.

The linear bearing is supplied as standard with NSK’s K1 lubrication unit to provide long term, maintenance-free operation, and Translide is characterised by its long operational lifespan.

In endurance tests performed on the product, no deterioration in surface roughness was evident on the ball tracks on the rails after running the full distance of the estimated lifespan.

Translide rolling element linear motion bearings are available in single rail lengths up to 4040mm (with butting rails providing for longer lengths) and can accommodate loads from 16,700N to 35,900N.

NJM/CLI introduces the high-speed Cremer Quad Tablet Counter to the North American market.
NJM/CLI introduces the high-speed Cremer Quad Tablet Counter to the North American market. The new Cremer CF1220-4 features four counting heads and a four-lane filling conveyor with a servo-driven infeed divider and a servo-driven collection device to maximize productivity within a space-saving 24-foot footprint. The Cremer Quad from NJM/CLI accurately fills up to 220 bottles per minute, based on 100-count bottles.

The new Cremer Quad handles tablets, caplets and hard or soft capsules ranging in size from 2 mm up to 25 mm in diameter.

The tablet counter accommodates a wide assortment of container sizes from 30 cc up to 1500 cc.

A single central guide adjustment with a digital display adjusts all four conveyors simultaneously to ease bottle diameter changes.

Designed to maximize production flexibility, one operator can handle the most complicated changeover in less than 45 minutes with minimal change parts and no tools required.

The servo-driven infeed divider on the Cremer Quad improves the repeatability of the operation, reliably assuring all four filling heads are adequately supplied with bottles.

Eliminating the wait for bottles, common to many traditional tablet counters, increases productivity.

The Cremer Quad offers enhanced software with improved diagnostics.

This diagnostic capability enables users to maximize production efficiency by identifying and remedying limiting factors during operation and by speeding set-up and changeover.

The diagnostic tools, together with a flat-screen touch control panel, enable operators to handle tasks that previously required the skills of a mechanic.

Exceeding cGMP specifications, the Cremer Quad is made of stainless steel with polished 316 contact parts and features raised bed conveyors and sealed vibrators.

Additionally, NJM/CLI makes the Cremer Quad available with optional CFR21 part 11-compliant software.

NJM/CLI can equip the Cremer Quad with an integrated broken tablet inspection system that eliminates broken tablets prior to counting and filling.

Compared to rejecting the entire bottle when a broken tablet is identified, the optional broken tablet inspection system increases production yield while maximizing product quality.

NJM/CLI offers a detailed validation package with the Cremer Quad.

The Company also offers full line integration services.

With the introduction of the Cremer Quad, NJM/CLI now offers a turnkey tablet line capable of handling up to 200 bottles per minute.

This new high-speed line is anchored with the recently introduced RotaCap Rotary Capper and the Commander II Rotary Labeler, both engineered and manufactured by NJM/CLI.

Bespoke Machines has manufactured a range of special picture assembly machines, purpose built to stretch canvas round picture frames facilitating the stapling of the two components
Bespoke Machines has manufactured a range of special purpose picture assembly machines for a supplier to a well known household retail company. These machines have been purpose built to stretch canvas round picture frames facilitating the stapling of the two components. This range of machines gives several benefits, namely elimination of the risk of repetitive strain injury, elimination of the incidence of muscle fatigue, consistency of product quality, reduction of the labour content in the stretching process, reduction of floor space required to perform the operation, and deskilling of the assembly process, reducing the training period for new operators.

Bespoke Machines is a special purpose machine manufacturer specialising in assembly machines.

Many production processes do not lend themselves to the use of standard production machines.

Unique machine designs have to be developed for a process to benefit from the advantages of automation.

Tailor-made automatic feeding, assembly, and testing systems design and integration are based on assembly and testing machines made up largely of standard modules.
Feeding, assembly, and testing technology offered Whether you are talking about lip-sticks, quick-couplings or cosmetic dispensers: production and testing of these products usually has to take place fully automated. A specialist for the manufacturing of assembly and testing machines is Mueller + Kurtz in Winterbach near Stuttgart in the south-west of Germany. Each of the systems is developed tailor-made according to the requirements of the individual product, yet the design basing on standardised modules.

Up to 65 steps can be integrated into a single, compact system: Feeding, assembly, printing, ultra-sonic welding, labelling, leak-testing, measuring of tension, pressure, force, velocity, checking of printing patterns, dosage, and many other applications.

Especially for a production and testing under clean-room conditions the MC.4 is offered: systems made from stain-less steel, designed for easy access and disinfection, yet showing a high grade of flexibility.

Up to 65 stations can be integrated into a single compact assembly and testing system for feeding, assembly, printing, labeling, leak-testing, measuring of various parameters and much more.
Two and three part (single-use) syringes, IV components, devices for the automated laboratory analysis - these are just a few of the numerous products that can be assembled and tested on machines offered by Mueller + Kurtz. Up to 65 stations can be integrated into a single compact system: Feeding, assembly, printing, labeling, leak-testing, measuring of various parameters and many other applications. For clean room applications from class 100.000 to 1.000, machines are offered in stainless steel and designed for easy access and disinfection.

Mueller + Kurtz is a German company and has been building high performance assembly and testing machines of the highest quality for 20 years.

Short project run times and innovative solutions are their trademark.

As production of plastic mouldings moves evermore towards lower cost manufacturing bases, UK moulding companies are looking to add value to their product says automatic assembly company.
As production of plastic mouldings moves evermore towards lower cost manufacturing bases, UK moulding companies are looking to add value to their product. The trend has grown significantly in the last decade, and is now at the heart of automobile manufacture, and is growing in other industries supplying technically complex products. This ranges from the addition of small mechanisms such as hinges and locks, plastic fluid handling components such as pipes and tanks, electrical assemblies, through to large moulded modules such as bumpers and cockpit assemblies.

In most of these cases, the moulding represents physically the bulk of the supply, but the company significantly adds value by assembling the mechanism with pins, springs, wires and fastenings, or, in the case of modules, assembles electrical wiring, instruments, lamps, sensors and trim parts.

The benefit to the OEM is that assemblies can be efficiently put together and fully tested off line, fitting simply and effectively into the supply chain.

Systems to facilitate this value addition have been built by TQC for more than 25 years, covering automated assembly of inserts, fastening devices, electrical parts and other sub assemblies into mouldings.

These have included robotic, indexing, rotary and pallet based assembly systems for plastic moulded assemblies, often involving some form of function, electrical or leak test.

These have included both fully and semi automated systems.

Although it might seem logical to fully automate any system, says the company, it is often better to go semi automatic, particularly where dextrous handling or complex visual inspection is necessary.

Much of what TQC supply to the automotive industry falls into this category, particularly when assembling large modules with a large number of individual build variations.

TQC’s range of assembly machines uses bar coded or downloaded build information to determine the make up of each individual module, and checks for presence and function as each part is assembled to the moulding.

Correct build is assured, as the system does not release the assembly if any part is missing or does not function.

A special purpose machine that assembles a variety of accumulators of different diameters and lengths meeting nearly zero changeover times between components.
Bespoke Machines has manufactured a special purpose accumulator assembly machine for a multi-national hydraulic component company featuring fast changeovers. The machine assembles a variety of accumulators of different diameters and lengths meeting nearly zero changeover times (SMED) between components. The change overs are simply accomplished typing in an old part number to the HMI.

The machine resets itself to the suit the length and diameter of the product and data to be engraved on the body.

The operator is prompted for these parameters when new product numbers are entered for the first time and are then saved for future reference.

The operation is as follows: 1.

Insert the piston to the body or tube.

2.

Secure two end caps to a pre-determined torque.

3.

Engrave the batch number and product data to the body Bespoke Machines is a special purpose machine manufacturer specialising in drilling and assembly machines.

Many production processes do not lend themselves to the use of standard production machines.

Unique machine designs have to be developed for a process to benefit from the advantages of automation.