The Customer:

Biro Edwin Bischof AG, Switzerland, develops and produces high-spec technical components using thermoplastic materials. One speciality is multicomponent moulding. The company's customer base is focused on the automotive sector, household goods, construction and electrical industries.

The Task:

Assemble clip nuts on automotive interior parts in a standalone cell.

The Problem:

Precise feed and reliable assembly of 12 clip nuts at various prescribed positions on the finished part. The customer wanted a system that could be adapted quickly and easily to process different products, and linked up with different injection moulding machines.

The Solution:

A standardized KraussMaffei clip assembly cell with an IR 30 F industrial robot is the optimal solution. Different parts are injection moulded for example on a KM 420 C multinject machine, demoulded by an unloading and transfer robot and placed in an article specific fixture. Clip nuts - its geometry poses a challenge for automation - are supplied from an integrated hopper. The hopper has an integrated sort and feed unit which singles the nuts and feeds them one at a time to the robot. The clip assembly head is equipped with the aligned clips and then they get assembled.

The Outcome:

The smallest KraussMaffei IR 30 F industrial robot with a sophisticated clip assembly head is used to assemble the clip nuts on the part. The 12 nuts are assembled within the injection moulding machine's cycle time. This is a very compact production cell with short start-up (and restart) times. Manual assembly within the cell is possible to tide over a production failure. This highly flexible manufacturing cell delivers on both productivity and flexibility.