AUTOMATION CELL DESIGNED TO MAXIMIZE JOB SHOP FLEXIBLITY
Methods Machine Tools offers the JobShop Cell. Designed specifically for job shops with small to medium lot sizes, the fully integrated production cell combines the drilling, tapping, and milling capability of a lightning-fast RoboDrill Vertical Machining Center with a fully interfaced FANUC 6-axis robot for automated loading/unloading.
Pre-engineered to meet a job shop's need for simple installation, fast setups, quick changeovers, operator safety, and production flexibility, the JobShop Cell is easily configured to handle virtually any part that will fit in its 6 in vise or chuck. It comes complete with inbound and outbound conveyors and guarding. The standardized work-handling interface accommodates a variety of hydraulic or pneumatic workholding options. An optional fourth axis and workholding fixture further increase the production cell's utility. The JobShop Cell provides job shops with a cost-effective means to compete successfully in today's highly competitive global economy. It offers job shops the same productivity and labor-saving advantages that high-priced custom cells offer OEMs, yet with job shop flexibility. Robotic loading / unloading minimizes or eliminates a long list of job shop problems. It reduces a shop's dependence on skilled labor, is available 100 percent of the time (including nights, weekends, and holidays), reduces labor costs, eliminates personnel problems, reduces scrap, and increases productivity. The heart of the cell, the automotive-duty-rated FANUC RoboDrill VMC, offers a 14-tool (or optional 21-tool) tool changer, torque to 56 ft-lbs, rigid tapping to 5000 RPM (8000 RPM optional), accelerations (in X, Y, and Z axes) to 1.5 G, rapid traverses to 2125 IPM, feed rates to 1181 IPM (2362 IPM optional), high-speed reverse tapping, thread milling, 1000 registerable programs, and 54 work offsets. The high-speed, 6-axis FANUC LR Mate 200iC robot comes with grippers, a teaching pendant, and several programs that can be easily customized to user needs.
