Alcon
Robot Easy brings 24 hour unattended running
Alcon is a name synonymous with the manufacture and supply of high specification brakes and clutches for motorsport and high performance road vehicles.
Alcon is a Technical Partner to the Honda F1 Racing Team and they have provided all the brake hardware to support Citroën’s dominance of the World Rally Championship [WRC] in recent years. In addition, the motorsport departments within Audi, BMW, Ford, Honda (Dome), Peugeot, Renault and Volkswagen count amongst their many customers. In the field of specialist and performance road cars they serve an impressive list of prestigious road car manufacturers, including Aston Martin, Bentley, Brabus, Jaguar, Land Rover, Porsche and Prodrive.
Anyone working the field of motorsport knows how important it is to achieve a fast response to their customers needs. Manufacturing processes must be able to adapt quickly to customers demands. Investment in the latest machine tool technology is one way to ensure these demands can be met.
Alcon recently took delivery of a Hermle C20U 5axis machining centre. To ensure this machine achieved its maximum output it was installed with an EROWA Robot Easy automatic pallet loading system.
The Robot Easy for Alcon was configured to handle 12 pallets. Each pallet can be loaded with work up to 260mm square or 325mm diameter and the transfer weight can be up to 130kg.
This capacity allows Alcon to automatically load large and complex brake calliper housings that can require as much as 2 to 3 hours machining. This means the machine could be left unattended for 24 hours. More typically, the highly skilled operators attend the machine during the day for process proving and the machine then continues on its own during the night with more established work.
Because the machine is attended by an operator during the day the normal machine access had to be maintained. This is usually achieved by placing the pallet loader to the side of the machine. The cast granite construction of the Hermle machine precludes this so the solution was to place the unit in front of the machine but off-set to the side and load the machine at a 45 degree angle. The new access door was designed and built by George Kingsbury Machine Tools who supply Hermle in the UK.
The Robot Easy is just one of a range of EROWA automatic pallet loading systems and was chosen to match the specific requirements of Alcon.
www.alcon.co.uk
www.gkholdings.com
February 2008
