Complete projects
Description and verification
A major company of the automotive industry incurred the need to resolve its production process quality control to prevent frequent errors in production.
Proposed solution
Single-purpose machine using dot peen technology for marking castings with a 2D code to be verified later.
Description of basic machine functions
The marking machine has a cart with clamps for clamping the castings. The cart can be set in 2 positions: marking and verification. In the marking position, castings are inserted and removed. The marking position is fitted with two Östling PN4/6 marking heads with a pneumatic pin. The verification position and the positions on conveyors are equipped with cameras.
Each casting carries two products. After casting, each product is marked with a 2D code. The size of the code is 12 x 12 modules (points) and 7 x 7 mm. Marking is carried out on a single-purpose marking and verification machine, located at the casting workplace.
After they are cooled in a bath, the castings are placed into the machine by an operator. After being marked, the codes on the products are verified by two cameras. Other 4 cameras and signal lights are located on the conveyors on the inspection and sorting section of the workplace. The inspection and sorting section of the workplace is also equipped with a wireless barcode reader for reading the numbers of baskets into which products are stocked. After loading the codes by cameras or readers, the date is loaded into the database. The control and verification applications of the single-purpose machine, as well as the record to the database and communication with the control system of the workplace are displayed on a computer with a touchscreen.
The following manufacturing plants use data and communication distributors with cameras, code readers and computers with touchscreens to track the flow of products through manufacturing operations. The database is run on the database server. Each distributor is therefore connected to the end user's computer network.
Benefits of the solution
- Early detection of errors in production
- Cost reduction in complaints procedures
- Transparency in the production and documentation
- Quality system control
Marking of castings
Marking of castings by dot peen devices, their monitoring in the course of machining and reverse identification
Project objectives:
- Marking of products (castings), finding the location and parameters for description for best possible readability and durability of the marking
- Provide technical, software and organizational resources effective monitoring of the flow of products
- Analyse and evaluate the quality of production (statistic evaluation of process capability, process capability index)
Technical solution:
After its arrival to the warehouse, each product is marked with a 2D code. The marking is carried out on a single-purpose machine with two dot peen marking units. The machine is equipped with a code reader to verify the quality of the marking and to record the codes to the database. The database and the main application are run on a master computer (server), which is connected to the industrial Ethernet switch (LAN) together with a warehouse computer and 14 2D code readers deployed in the production plant, a computer of the triple-coordinate measuring instrument (Zeiss) and a terminal at the quality control workplace with a printer.
Marking machine:
The marking machine has 2 marking positions, one for each type of product. Each position is equipped with an Östling PN4/6 marking head. All machine functions are controlled by a control computer with a touchscreen. To verify the marked code, the machine is equipped with a reader. The data is passed in the database using a simple specific protocol. Limited functionality of the protocol prevents harmful external interference in the control computer.
Database software:
The database type is MSSQL. Its server is run on the main computer, which also runs an application with the task to save all data from workstations equipped with code readers from the marking machine, from the coordinate measuring instrument and from the inspection.
The inspection workplace uses the terminal to enter individual product data. The products are then placed on palettes. It is possible to place the code of the specific type of scraps and to print protocols. The application in the warehouse computer provides information about the status of the inventory and enables the management of shipping individual pallets. Upon the request from the customer, we added other applications designed for the shift master and production managers. These applications make it possible to evaluate the product counts at individual workplaces, utilization of workplaces, work efficiency of individual workers, and more.
Statistics:
Data obtained from the coordinate measuring instrument are used to draw up protocols of process capability. Protocols are exported to .xls format and display the Gaussian distribution, histogram, deviations and indexes of capability.