TPT September 2016

BEND I NG , END FORM I NG & SWAG I NG

Automated production cell for 24/7 manufacturing THE engineering design consultancy Ingenium Integration has developed a multi-function automated production cell for H&E Knowles, a UK-based wheelbarrow manufacturer.

cut-to-length stations. It fully automates the entire wheelbarrow frame manufacturing process, from raw tube material handling through to final pre- paint finishing and quality inspection. The cell was developed at Ingenium Integration’s design centre in Manchester, UK, and manufactured and assembled in a facility at Unison in Scarborough, UK. Ingenium Integration is also able to call upon Unison’s expertise in all-electric tube bending technology to help solve customers’ fabrication problems. The company holds an integration licence for the five-axis parallel kinematic machines (PKMs) developed by Swedish company Exechon. Ingenium Integration Ltd – UK Email: sales@ingeniumintegration.com Website: www.ingeniumintegration.com

Ingenium Integration bases many of its automated production cell designs around all-electric tube benders from Unison, its parent company. The system being built for H&E Knowles is a 38mm (1.5") twin head model from Unison’s all-electric Breeze range. It features a left and right head on the same carriage that facilitate precision symmetrical bending to reduce cycle times, with an off-set facility to enable asymmetrical bending of the final tight bend at the wheel end of wheelbarrow frames, while avoiding collision with machine architecture during the process. The production cell comprises a tube bundle loader, tube orientation station with seam detection, intermediate dual-arm loader, bending machine and several articulated robotic handlers, as well as swaging, hole punching and

The cell will speed the production of wheelbarrow full and part frames by eliminating many labour-intensive aspects of production. According to Dave Ashworth, Ingenium Integration’s MD, “We have developed automated production cells for a number of production processes involving tube bending. The system under construction is the most integrated system we have designed to date – fully automating most of the stages of wheelbarrow frame production, including tube bending, hole punching, swaging and cut-to- length – and is designed for unattended 24/7 operation.”

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S EPTEMBER 2016