Machine Spotlights – 40 years of Engineering Excellence (Page 1)
To showcase our projects over the past 40 years, here are some machine spotlights that cover many technology areas and industry sectors. These projects are great examples of the engineering approach that’s driven us for 40 years — and still pushes our automation today.
👉 Are you exploring automation, testing or production efficiency upgrades, we are happy to share lessons learned, ideas and examples — get in touch
- Leak Testing swallowable pill cameras (supplied in 2002)
- Multiple units supplied for leak testing of small sealed medical devices to ensure safe use and valid dignostic results.
- Challenge: Medical sector, sealed part, tight leak test, 100% test requirements, small footprint, high uptime.
- Solution:
- Drawer leak test fixture
- Leak test instrument
- Automatic tooling with test chamber
- Failed parts locked within fixture
- Simple operation
- Impact:
- 100% production leak testing
- Easy loading and unloading
- Cost effective, standardised leak test fixture
- Aicraft Wing Fuel Tank & Pipework Test Equipment (supplied in 2013)
- Three portable semi automatic test systems supplied for production testing of aircraft parts
- Challenge: Multiple test requirements, complex test parts 100% testing, PC control with safe semi automatic operation
- Solution:
- Hydrogen tracer gas leak test bench
- High pressure fuel pipe leak test bench
- Hydraulic flushing and pressure testing system
- PC contol with operator guidance prompts / images
- Flexible test sequences
- Impact:
- Fully traceable testing with barcode scanning
- Aerospace specification testing
- Multi functional testing
- Medical Plastic Vial Leak Testing (supplied in 2004)
- High speed solution handling multiple parts at once, several machines supplied to suit high volume production
- Challenge: Medical sector, sealed part leak testing, fail safe operation to ensure passed and failed parts are segregated.
- Solution:
- Bulk part feeders
- Multi-position indexing table for load, testing and unloading
- 10 up part tooling per station with dedicated leak test units
- No leak (Pass), gross leak and fine leak (fail) part routing
- PLC control + data logging
- Impact:
- 70 units/hour achieved (scaled up across multiple machines to typically 500 units per hour)
- Reliable high-volume testing
- Medical sector solution
- Plastic bumper assembly equipment, including BMW Mini mouldings (supplied from 2009)
- Multiple systems to support assembly and production of plastic mouldings that are configured “built to order”.
- Challenge: Part variant handling, poka yoke functionality, assisted assembly, easy part loading and unloading
- Solution:
- Dedicated equipment for front and rear bumper mouldings
- Automated punching, clipping and assembly
- Poka yoke assembly with part and colour sensing to ensure correct part configuration
- Tooling design to ensure damage free part handling
- PLC control as needed
- Impact:
- Ensure operators handle plastic moulding correctly for ‘built to order’ process
- Supports high-volume automotive production
- Modular solutions incorporating proven designs
More machine spotlights coming soon