Robots and automation: in the field for beauty
An eyeshadow container assembly line with two 18 m tracks, built and designed in record time: made by Omnicos in a joint project with Idm Automation and Mitsubishi Electric.
Omnicos Group is a contract manufacturer in the cosmetics sector based in Romanengo, near Cremona (an area where 80% of European contract manufacturers in this sector are located). The group makes nearly every type of cosmetic product, including container assembly and packaging. It is strongly oriented toward both product and process innovation, which is why it is constantly researching new automation and robotics solutions to resolve problems and application issues on the lines. One of the concern’s most recent projects has to do with assembly of eyeshadow kits for an Italian single brand customer.
The request and the solution
In order to create a fully automated, high productivity line, and in extremely short time, Omnicos turned to Idm Automation, a builder of filling systems for cosmetics, which then brought in Mitsubishi Electric as its line automation and robotics solution specialist.
After conducting a feasibility study, the two companies supplied Omnicos with their knowhow in factory design, mechanical construction and software programming, creating an eyeshadow container assembly line with two 18 m tracks. Operational since 2013, the line can assemble 4,000 pcs/hr on each of two lines simultaneously, at a rate of 66 beats/min.
Precision and synchronization. The four Scara RH-6FH5520 robots and two Scara RH-6SDH5520 robots installed on the assembly line (all stand-alone units) are by Mitsubishi Electric. The latter also supplied the GT16 operator panel and the MR-J3B servomotors, which are run directly by the robots and FR-D720SC inverters.
The operator can use the GT16 panel to control the servomotors, vision systems and six robots through an Ethernet connection (the robots are connected to additional MR-J3B axes, as well as to the inverters, whose progress on the line is thus managed through the inverters).
All these solutions have enabled Omnicos to have a supply chain that meets the highest standards of modularity, speed, picking precision and synchronization of the automation platform’s various components.
The advantages. Thanks to the solutions supplied by Mitsubishi Electric, Omnicos is now able to manage the entire 18 m line and all six Scara robots with just one GT16 HMI panel. Furthermore, a single operator can correct values, speed or positioning and search cycle history, without resorting to a PLC or other additional control devices.
With GT16, production status, line progress and robot motion, any machine stops and alarms can all be controlled and managed in real time.
The production data can be exported to an Excel spreadsheet, with detailed records and an associated lot number (operator activity, results, alarms, cameras).
The Omnicos team very much appreciated the possibility of managing these operations directly from even a consumer tablet device, where the HMI is installed, in addition to the ability to use video recordings to aid the operator and set up a wireless connection in the machine.
Also decisive in the Idm design for Omnicos were certain functions of the Mitsubishi Electric Scara robots, starting with the more conventional ones like integrated fiber optics for managing additional axes (up to a maximum of eight) and data transmission between the panels and vision systems.
To these should be added the more advanced functions of the F series, like the completely closed cover’s IP65 protection, wiring insertion inside the robot, robustness, high pick & place speed (0.29 seconds per cycle standard), repeatability to the hundredth millimeter and the conveyor tracking function integrated into the robot’s control module.
