Features:

• Novel 22 Foot Diameter Rotary Table
• Six simultaneous operations
• Operators from 6 to 2
• Cycle time from 30 to 18 seconds
• 29 Foot Long Glass Conveyor
• 6 Operation Stations
• Two 3-Axis Sealant Dispensing Robots
• Automated Glass Registrationand Alignment Robot

Situation:

Vinyl window and door manufacturer has a multistep manual process that is used to make their products.

Problem:

The overall manual process is unbalanced, heavily reliant on manual labor (up to 20 people), low yield due to inconsistent quality, and a source of workplace injury. These factors contribute to high unit cost.

Implication:

International competitive forces compel the business owners to examine methods to automate the manufacturing process.

Solution:

The windows for residential doors are a product separate from the door itself. Each window is composed of an outer frame that has a soft seal to the door and an adhesive seal to the window, and an inner frame that is screwed to the outer frame. To address the assembly of a variety of sizes of these windows, Accudyne Systems created a six station rotary workcell. In the first station, an operator loads the outer window frame onto a vacuum platen that can support 8 different window sizes. At the second station, an adhesive glaze is robotically applied to the inside of the outer frame. The next station press fits the glass into the frame and presses it to the previously applied glaze. The machine includes a conveyor that carries the glass from the cleaning machine to the placement station where it is properly oriented prior to placement. The fourth station robotically applies the non-adhesive caulk that seals the frame to the door. The second operator then places the inner frame onto the outer frame and glass assembly at station five. Finally, the two operators work together to unload the finished frame from station six. All work-in-progress is carried on a 22 foot in diameter rotating table that can rotate 60 degrees in 4 seconds and position the window frame within 0.020 inches. The machine also uses a unique distributed control station that allows each station to operate completely independent of the others.