Page 38 - trends in automation

T yrolean company Wörgartner is
a supplier of high-precision metal
stamped and bent parts and an
experienced tool manufacturer.
Since 1985, CEO Peter Wörgartner and
his 80-strong team have been supplying
industrial companies worldwide with
complex metal parts. “Thanks to extensive
automation, we process 3,000 tonnes of
steel each year. We then use that to pro-
duce 100 to 150 million parts,” says
­Wörgartner. In his latest project, the com-
pany is again using full automation. The
tool manufacture experts developed a
high-performance testing device which
checks two laser welding seams on a
­metal part quickly and reliably. Whereas
previously the part had to be rotated,­
involving loss of material, the welding of
single parts and subsequent checking
achieves the same level of reliability with
significantly reduced material costs.
Checked on the move
The newly developed handling system
uses a vibration feeder to feed laser-
welded parts to a rotary indexing table
and ensures they are in the correct test-
ing position. After the machine has
­removed all the parts from the table, it
positions them in a rotary unit. During
­rotation, an industrial camera carries out
The time-saving machine
Automatic welding seam inspection
The fully automatic high-performance testing device from Wörgartner
­is a real sprinter. It checks the welding seams of a metal component ­
in just 1.5 seconds. Automation technology from Festo allows fast and
­reliable handling.
the visual check. In just 300 milliseconds,
it takes a multitude of photos and ana­
lyses and compares them. The vision
­system immediately detects ­irregularities
on the welding seam that are invisible to
the ­naked eye. After the check, the parts
are automatically returned to the rotary­
indexing table. The machine transports
good parts to the assembly system and
discards reject parts.
40 parts per minute
According to Peter Wörgartner, speed
was the biggest challenge when develop-
ing the system. This is due to the fact
that the testing unit must keep pace with
the cycle time of the upstream production
process. The time between removal from
the rotary indexing table and further
transport to the assembly system is just
1.5 seconds. The new machine can there-
fore check 40 parts per minute. “In order
to be able to synchronise a large number