Development of Visionless Flexible Part Feeder for Handling Shock Absorbers

Abstract

Present trend in automating the batch production industries which manufactures a family of parts uses the flexible part feeder with the vision system to feed the part into the system. The vision system makes the system complex and costly which limits the use of flexible part feeders. To increase the use of the flexible part feeder low-cost flexible part feeders have to be used. To reduce the cost, replacement of the vision system and the robotic arm has to be done. Thus designing a flexible part feeder with an alternative to the vision system and robotic arm for a family of parts could serve as an initiative to reduce the cost of the currently used flexible part feeder. This article focuses on the development of a flexible part feeder without vision system and robotic arm. The approach involves finding the replacement of the vision system, designing the flexible part feeder for a family of parts in three steps, development of identification unit with the help of the replacement found and integrating the identification unit with the controller and controlling the orienting tools with the help of pneumatic actuator followed by testing of the setup for the functional requirement. The work throws light on the replacement of vision system with the capacitive proximity sensors and to replace the robotic arm with the help of orienting tools and thereby reducing the cost and complexity.