Design & development of an automated (robotic) snapping, banding & sorting system

Abstract

The paper summarizes the details of the design & development of an automated (robotic) snapping/cutting, banding & sorting system for mixed size, shape and pattern labels used for various applications. The project was a University/Industry collaboration to automate an aspect of a production line to increase the production efficiency. The specific problem to solve was to identify and remove bottlenecks in a semi-automated manufacturing process. Areas of particular concern were block cracking/snapping mechanism, handling of loose stacks of labels, banding & sorting systems, linkages between machine stages, timing & speed of the system and finally the layouts of the sheets. The project also involved a detailed investigation of the current machinery and production processes at the specific bottleneck stage to identify all sorts of problems in production whether they are related to the complexity of the designs of layouts or speed and timing of the system.