Using robots to improve productivity is not new, but the availability of high performance low-payload articulated robots offer engineers unprecedented opportunities for productivity improvement in any business. Mitsubishi’s Electric’s RV-F-series high-dynamic 6-axle articulated robots combine high levels of speed, quality and accuracy with 99.9% availability

Also onboard are built-in Ethernet, USB, tracking, camera and additional axle connections, as well as manual inputs/outputs to enable new users across many sectors to benefit from robotic lifting, positioning and assembling for the first time.

Automating print cartridge recycling

The plant is the recycling technology centre for the company. Its core business is the manufacture and recycling of toner cartridges and it is responsible for collection schemes that run throughout Europe, so product turnover is high. Challenged with the task of either making one of their processes more productive or moving the process to another plant, a team of in-house UK engineers considered using a robot for automating the refilling of office printer / copier cartridges.

The labour-intensive process involved taking a cartridge, manually removing its cap, refilling the cartridge, fitting a new cap and finally check weighing. It needed to be changed to keep it cost effective and increase capacity without increasing headcount.

The engineers decided to consider automating the task, hoping that productivity could be significantly increased. They called in automation specialists from Mitsubishi Electric, who not only suggested a robotic approach, but also offered to lend the customer a robot for evaluation.

Robot operates in limited spaces

Several complicated movements were required to complete the task, and space was limited, so Mitsubishi Electric suggested an RV-2F, 2kg pay load vertical axis robot which has a very small footprint and will work effectively within confined spaces. The cell is still manually loaded, but then the robot takes over, manipulating the cartridge through each step. The robot also had the precision to achieve repeatability targets set for the cell.

The robot cell is completed with an HMI and an MES module, both from Mitsubishi. The former makes stopping, starting and resetting the robot intuitively easy, while the latter connects the robot to the wider production control system providing key data and enabling effective plant visualisation.

Global rollout

Not only has the use of this robot ensured that jobs are protected by keeping the function at the site, but the team that developed the robot cell has gained new skills and experience and hence been designated as a robot cell development team with responsibility for similar work across the Northern Hemisphere. The solution has proved so successful that it is now being rolled-out to other plants around the world.

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