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Custom Engineered Solutions
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Customer Objective
Design and install new manufacturing process equipment to align and assemble airbag inflators with gas guides using sound ergonomic principles and in-process checks to verify that all components in the assembly comply with rigid quality standards.
Project Description
Airbag inflators and gas guides are manually loaded, unloaded and automatically crimped to secure the assembly while maintaining the correct orientation between components.
One solution includes a crimping tool operated with a cam motion that uses force and distance in-process monitoring. Inflators are loaded vertically into a fixture that automatically accommodates length variations with a servo adjusted elevator. A second servo motor in the fixture is used to adjust the radial orientation of the inflator twice during each cycle, once to align it with the gas guide and a second time to position it for automatic labeling. The clear area above the crimp tooling allows gas guides with many configurations to be assembled on the inflator with minimal fixture adjustments.
An alternative solution incorporates a two(2) part “clam shell” die that separates to allow loading and unloading components and operates independent crimping fingers with a straight line, closing press to apply crimp force.
Manufacturing Benefits
A cam operated crimp tool generates a controlled motion to secure the gas guide to the Inflator with a reliable and repeatable process.
Servo controlled motions were integrated in the inflator fixture to accommodate the multiple lengths and clocking requirements for the various models, each with left hand and right hand variations.
The clam shell die design allows gas guides with irregular shapes that wrap back toward the inflator to be loaded into the tooling and crimped on the inflator.
Integrated Technologies
Custom cam profile designs were generated to evenly crimp gas guides, pneumatically advanced tooling provides a method to control reject handling, and the control system includes an Allen Bradley PLC and PanelView operator interface terminal.
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