Painting by robot improves productivity for television plant

Citation

(1999), "Painting by robot improves productivity for television plant", Industrial Robot, Vol. 26 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/ir.1999.04926caf.007

Painting by robot improves productivity for television plant

Keywords Painting, Spraying, Robots

Production output of television sets from the Onwa Electronics factory near Newcastle upon Tyne is targeted to reach 600,000 sets a year, more than double the output achieved before the business came under the control of Semi-Tech Global 12 months ago.

The increase follows restructuring by Semi-Tech of its European manufacturing facilities which has resulted in a multi-million pound investment in the UK-based factory. Two new automated electronic board assembly lines have been installed together with a new painting facility, using robot technology supplied by ABB Flexible Automation of Milton Keynes (see Plate 6).

Plate 6 Complete robot painting system supplied by ABB Flexible Automation to Onwa Electronics

Semi-Tech is one of the top ten consumer electronics manufacturers in the world. With research and development facilities located in Germany, the group markets high quality TV, video, hi-fi and audio products under its Akai New Age brand.

Production for European markets is shared between the UK factory and a complementary facility in Turku, Finland. In addition to the Akai product range, the group also produces television sets for a large number of internationally recognised brands.

The manufacturing process is based upon a series of injection moulding machines and tooling used to produce specific TV cabinet enclosures. These are then cleaned and finished by spray painting in a range of different colours according to customer specifications, prior to final assembly.

Painting was previously carried out by hand spraying using solvent-based paint which requires special breathing apparatus. The use of solvent materials also comes under strict control to prevent the release of harmful emissions and Onwa had to operate expensive abatement measures to purify the air exhausted from the plant.

This problem has been resolved with the introduction of low emission water-borne paint technology which is safer and easier to handle in an industrial environment. The new investment fulfilled two basic objectives, first to transfer the process over to water-borne paint and second to introduce more efficient methods by automating the process.

"Painting by robot enables us to control the process to achieve consistent quality and more efficient paint consumption," says Steven Crawford, plastic manager, adding: "The robot uses less paint and is twice as fast as a human operator. We are now running the process continuously for 16 hours a day with a throughput of around 2,500 cabinets a day."

The ABB system incorporates two shuttle tables, an ABB TR 510 electric drive robot and paint delivery system. The robot is housed within a clean-room enclosure ventilated by filtered air to prevent dirt from entering the spray zone. Cabinets are washed in an alcohol-based cleaning agent and then given a de-ionising blow off to remove static and dust before being loaded onto the workholders on each of the robot's shuttle tables.

In operation the shuttle tables transport the TV cabinets into and out of the spray booth. Painting takes less than 30 seconds after which the cabinet is loaded onto a conveyor for transfer through to a flash off zone for five minutes and into a gas-fired curing oven for 10 to 15 minutes.

The robot cell was installed and commissioned in August 1998 during the two week summer shut down period. Commenting on the installation, Steve Crawford said: "After initial trials we are now achieving a right-first-time yield of around 93 per cent. Whilst quantity throughput and quality is satisfactory we are continuing to optimise the process by using the robot's programming to adjust the fan settings to keep paint wastage to bare minimum. This should lead to further savings on paint and help in reducing the costs involved in waste disposal."

The Onwa TR510 installation is the 12th ABB electric robot to be installed in the UK for spray painting tv cabinets. ABB Flexible Automation supplies robotic solutions for a range of different applications within the manufacturing, process and engineering industries.

For further information contact: Jane Attwood, ABB Flexible Automation Limited, Auriga House, Precedent Drive, Rooksley, Milton Keynes MK13 8PQ, UK. Tel: +44 (0) 908 350300; Fax: +44 (0) 1908 350301.