In a deflashing workcell, camera, lighting, and software combine with four-axis robot to remove excess plastic from injection-molded auto parts.
Using a robot to trim flashing from an injection-molded-plastic part is not a new application. However, when the robot is being fed from six different lines, each with different dimensions and features-including some with metal cores inside the plastic-cost-effectively guiding a water-jet cutting tool becomes very challenging. A US automotive-part manufacturer, tired of high labor costs and insufficient quality controls necessitated by flashing removal in a variety of plastic parts, recently turned to Abacus Automation to come up with a flexible robot workcell that could remove the excess material while providing quality inspection.
