Left & Right Door Panels from One Machine, One Mold, Twin Robots
Twin robot arms tend a stack-type mold.
Arkal molds left and right door panels in a stack-type mold on a 1600-ton MX two-platen press using a "TwinZ" robot with two arms controlled by the machine's MC6 control.
Arkal Automotive GmbH in Crock, Germany, is producing two door panels in a single shot with a multi-daylight mold and two linear robots on a shared Z-axis. The two door panels of 30% glass-filled PP are molded on a 1600-ton MX hydromechanical two-platen machine from KraussMaffei (U.S. office in Florence, Ky.) with the aid of two KraussMaffei LRX robots in a “TwinZ” arrangement (also highlighted at the K 2016 fair in Dusseldorf last month). This is the first time KM has implemented twin robots that are programmed and controlled via the machine’s MC6 controller. The robots are programmed via the shared program editor, using KM’s new “multiple kinematics” software that can control up to 24 axes—such as four robots with three axes each. Arkal currently produces around 3600 door trim panels a week in three shifts, alternating between left-right front doors and back doors.
Arkal Automotive is based in Israel and has plants in Auburn, Ala., and London, Ont., as well as a sales office in Farmington Hills, Mich.
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