Want to Fully Automate Your Plant but Worried About Too Many Faulty Products? Options That Help
It is exciting to think that you really could have a plant that is fully automated. From the head of the production line to the tail-end, you would probably need less than ten employees making sure raw materials are loaded properly and that the product comes out looking as expected in the end. However, the one thing that makes a lot of companies nervous about a fully automated plant is that too many faulty products are missed on the production line, and then a lot of recalls have to be made. If this makes you nervous as well, here are some options that can help you automate your plant but keep faulty items from ending up in the packaging stage.
Cognex Vision Machines
Imagine not having to pay any employees to watch the production line and pull messed-up products from the automated line. Instead, you get "vision" machines that spot problems for you, and the line immediately stops until the faulty items are removed. Better still, connect the "vision" machines to the automated line and a system of machines that pull faulty products and everything continues to run as smooth as silk. Then you really do have a fully automated line, right on down to spotters that immediately detect product problems and pull them from the conveyor belt.
Cameras That Find and Register Product by Order in the Line
Cameras that find faults in products can also register the products in the line by the order discovered. The next step is to mark the products so that the human at the end of the line can pull and scrap the marked items. It could be as simple as a mechanical system that runs a grease crayon in a streak on the affected products as the products fly by. Signals would travel from the cameras spotting the problems to the marking instrument without missing a single beat. This prevents faulty products from getting all the way to the end of the production line and being packaged and thrown into a box for shipping.
Products That Disassemble and Reassemble
Several other manufacturing plants have learned to get around the issues with crafting something that can be taken apart by individual components and then reassembled. That way, if there is a single faulty component of the product, you only have to remove that component and replace it. The entire product does not have to be scrapped.
If you want to improve the way your plant functions you can look into Cognex Machine Vision from companies like Advanced Motion Systems.