Scaling an existing product with a new mold and automation
The Objective
Re-tool an existing product with higher cavitation to meet growing demand.
The Challenge
One of PDI’s customers has a single-cavity mold that has been in service for 30 years. The part is insert molded, meaning a brass insert gets placed in the mold before the plastic rubber is molded around the insert. Insert molding often requires hand-loading the insert into the mold, but PDI took on the challenge to automate this process to improve efficiency and throughput.
The Solution
To meet the customer’s cost and throughput goals, PDI commissioned a 4-cavity mold to quadruple the production output. PDI made design choices on the mold to facilitate loading the brass inserts with a robot in the future. Once the mold was built, PDI began running the mold by hand-loading the inserts to get a better idea of the production flow. PDI engineers developed prototype automation concepts to determine the simplest, most cost-effective, and most likely-to-succeed direction.
PDI engineers and fabricators developed a gravity slide to position the brass inserts for a robot to pick up 4 inserts at a time. We also developed a robot end-of-arm-tool to remove the finished parts, load the brass inserts in the mold, place the finished parts on a conveyor, and pick up new brass inserts.
The end result is a highly efficient production line, ensuring the customer receives parts on-time and has room to grow for the next 30 years and beyond.
Contact us today to learn more about our in-house automation capabilities.