Utilizing high-tech automation to manufacture window & door shims
The Objective
PDI manufactures tens of millions of shims each year for Glazelock. Production efficiency is paramount to minimize costs, increase profitability, and increase production throughput as Glazelock grows. PDI needed to automate the manufacturing processes to meet production cycle time targets, price targets, and increase annual capacity on a single production line.
The Challenge
Glazelock’s top-selling product line is the ShimStack: peel-apart packs of 8 or 16 shims. In the past, PDI has developed in-house automation cells that weld the parts together in a pack, but it was slow, labor-intensive, and yielded inconsistent quality in the finished product. PDI engineers developed additional prototype automation cells, all which required hand-loading parts into a fixture. The cycle time was still below target, meaning production capacity was limited.
The Solution
PDI engineers went to an automation trade show for inspiration and to make new vendor contacts for automation equipment. PDI met with Epson about their SCARA pick-and-place robots, where Epson was featuring their new low-code programming software. This sparked a new automation concept wherein a pair of robots could handle and process the parts.
PDI spent about 6 months developing a new automation cell centered around the molding machine-mounted takeout robot and a cost-effective SCARA pick-and-place robot. The automation cell was designed and developed entirely in-house including mechanical, robotics, and PLC integration. This ensured the project remained on-budget and is tightly integrated into our existing infrastructure.
As orders have increased, PDI engineers have made incremental improvements to the automation cell, which now produces over 350,000 parts per day.
PDI tailors production to each customer. If you’re just starting out, we can support prototype tooling to minimize up-front investment while you grow your business. As your company scales and your production needs increase, we’re well poised to grow with you by deploying low-cost automation to save you money.
Read more about this project as featured in an Epson case study.
Contact us today to discuss how we can take your production needs to the next level.