Robot of the Week: A Ballet of Efficient Engineering

A Minnesota plastics manufacturer worked with Rapid to automate a complex operation producing automotive touchscreens, and save nearly a million dollars in CapEx.

May 17th, 2023 2 min read

This operation at a plastics manufacturer in Chanhassen, Minnesota that produces high quality parts for several major automotive OEMs is one of our favorites. Our RMO Mario performs multiple tasks in a single automation:

  1. Mario picks an injection molded part placed in a fixture by a Cartesian robot.

  2. The RMO then moves the part to a laser engraver/degater.

  3. From there, Mario lifts the part and now-separated gates over a waste bin, where secondary grippers on the end-of-arm tool release the gates.

  4. The part is then placed in a custom-built air blow off fixture, where both surfaces and all four edges are cleaned to ready the part for curing.

  5. Lastly, Mario places the part on a conveyor for UV curing.

Mario is running this operation 3 shifts a day, at a cycle time of around 50 seconds. 

It's not just the beauty of the operation itself that makes us love this deployment so much. The Rapid engineering team truly went above and beyond to solve some incredibly complex challenges. From solving the gate removal step without additional equipment to the elegance and speed of the air blow off, this deployment is truly a ballet of efficient and smart engineering. This deployment is more than that, though - it's a perfect showcase of how Rapid leverages innovative solutions to solve "impossible" problems. This customer was quoted CapEx pricing as high as $900,000 to automate this process, while Rapid Robotics was able to implement a solution that - as always - delivered ROI from the moment it started operating.

This website uses cookies
to improve your experience.