Use cases
Additive Manufacturing Pilot Line for medical devices production (STERIPACK)
Plastic Manufacturing Pilot Lines for large part finishing (CABKA/MOSES)
Electric Components Assembly Pilot Line for electric motors manufacturing (ICPE)
Electronic Elements Assembly Pilot Line for electronic circuits production (IKOR)
Additive Manufacturing PL for medical devices production (SteriPack)
STERIPACK is a contract manufacturer of medical devices offering tailor-made production solutions. Specifically, batch manufacturing techniques are used for Class I and Class II components, made of raw materials with medical grade properties (i.e. polyurethane-based materials). STERIPACK is using Additive manufacturing (AM) process based on the Liquid Interface Production (CLIP) technology, supplying high tolerance components and speed production, with inherent long-term stability using materials suitable for medical device production. Additive manufacturing or 3D printing has the potential to change production lines by increasing flexibility. AM leads to decreased tooling cost, rapid design iteration and a reduced time to market. This allows smaller companies to manufacture low volume lots without a large initial capital investment.
STERIPACK aims to demonstrate ACROBA solution through the transformation of their largely manual manufacturing process into a ACROBA “Lights out” factory production setting, increasing productivity and enabling technology that will have a transformative effect beyond medical device manufacturing industry.
The manufacturing of large size plastic components involves technical challenges which usually result on the generation of defects in the products which require further reprocessing. ACROBA solution will be tested on two use case:
- CABKA is a manufacturer of technical plastic products including plastic pallets which process encounter flash defects due to large injection pressures that must be deburred mechanically to keep the pallet in a regular shape.
- The company MOSES PRODUCTOS is expert in the transformation of Fossilbased, Biobased and Biodegradable materials including large container lids for urban areas. Their production requieres deburring before their commercialisation, a process that is difficult to automatise.
These two use cases will take advantage of the ACROBA framework to design a common solution based in AI and machine learning. A Digital Twin (DT) of the actual and target production line will be generated. In order to do so, the monitoring of the injection machine parameters, raw material parameters and environmental conditions for the individual parts will allow creating a data base with that matches parameters with defects.
ACROBA will introduce real time automated quality control. With the deployment of the solution in the real production environment, both manufacturing systems will benefit from a higher flexibility, acquiring the ability to adapt to the different processes.
Plastic Manufacturing PLs for large part finishing (CABKA/MOSES)
Electric Components Assembly PL for electric motors manufacturing (ICPE)
Electric motors manufacture involves the assembly of distinct types of electric components in considerable design variations. The variability of the production (with multiple raw materials) is the main challenge faced by ICPE. Currently, ICPE’s production entirely relies on manual labour, except for CNC machining.
The project will allow the automation of three main tasks: coil winding, permanent magnet bonding and slotless coils bonding. Several advantages are foreseen with the introduction of robotic systems, the most important related to the improvement of employees work quality. From a process perspective, product manufacturing flexibility would be enhanced and the production yield would be significantly incremented. The final product quality and consistency would be improved while the operating cost would be lowered, thanks to the reduction on operating cost and labour costs, as well as the reduction of material waste.
IKOR provides a total service for the design and manufacture of electronic circuits (EMS), including supply chain solutions for world-leading industrial and technological companies. The variability of their manufacturing services, addressing to different sectors such as automotive, medical, industrial or home appliances, and the multiplicity of raw materials in the Printed Circuit Boards and electronic components, are the main challenges currently faced in their production.
The electronic board assembly process can be divided in six steps in which human operators perform manual tasks while collaborating with production machines. The introduction of ACROBA solution will allow completing human operators with robotic systems with a minimum impact in the working area.
Ultimately, ACROBA will allow an increase in the output quality, a reduction of damaged and missing parts and will lower interruptions in the production.