Pre-treatment of sand casting dies

A roller conveyor transports one of the molding boxes to a turnover station. There the robot controller reads in the code of the box and thus recognizes which box types are to be processed in the cell, and in what order. As soon as the conveyor system receives the appropriate signal from the robot controller, the box is indexed forward on the roller conveyor until it stops underneath a manipulator. The manipulator picks up the box and swivels it into a position where the robot can blow the sand out of the mold. After that the manipulator lifts the molding box over the wash collecting basin. The KR 125 then picks up its flood lance and applies the wash to the mold with great precision. Subsequently the manipulator rotates the box to allow wash residues to drip into the flood basin, then sets the box back down on the roller conveyor.

• KUKA KR 125 robot
• PC-based KUKA robot controller, including control panel with Windows interface
• Gripper system and its adaptation to the flood lance
• Robot programming
• Engineering for the program application
• Interfaces to the periphery
• Safety fences
• Commissioning
• Training for operating personnel
  
  

Supplied by the KUKA systems partner Boll Handhabungssysteme GmbH, Kleinwallstadt, Germany.

• High cost-effectiveness
  
  Since Linde has saved one operator in each shift, the company now produces the counterweights much more cost-effectively. The payback period is expected to be two years for the entire system, including the software. Moreover, the operating personnel is no longer subjected to vapors from the wash.
  
  
• Ease of operation
  
  The ease of operation via the KUKA Control Panel, with its Windows-based interface, is of particular importance here, since 31 different programs are required for the various molding boxes.