MANUFACTURING AUTOMATION
Voltage Adapter Assembly System
Background
Advent Design’s client was manually assembling
electric outlet adapters and was losing market share each year
to low-cost, offshore products. Advent Design proposed developing
an automated assembly system to reduce labor and improve quality
System Description
|
Advent Design
developed a totally automated system to automatically assemble
four different electrical outlet adapter products. As part
of this project Advent developed a custom synchronous pallet
conveyor transport mechanism so that the layout of the system
supported easy access to the stations and feeders.
The system had stations to perform the
following operations:
- Feed pins of two different diameters
- Feed Blades in two different configurations
- Check for pin/blade presence
- Feed plastic base
- Feed and stake two brass clips
- Perform an electrical test
- Feed and place plastic cover
- Ultrasonically weld components together
- Hot stamp customer logo on top and
side
- Eject/reject
The system was designed to run at a rate
of 12 products per minute, but achieved a rate of over 15
parts per minute. Changeover time between products, which
involved removing and replacing all 25 pallets, took less
than 10 minutes. |
Impact
This system enabled the client to increase production
capacity and improve quality while reducing the amount of manual
labor from sixteen operators to one. The system, which was installed
in 1993 and is still in operation, has produced over 16 million
pieces. This system has enabled our client to regain lost market
share, and now commands a dominant market share position for this
product.
