Automated assembly line for mascara brushes with Flexibowl® 800 and EPSON Robot
Case study: a system dedicated to the assembly of mascara brushes
Our Partner
Effedi provides advanced automation solutions by combining the latest technologies in robotics, industrial automation and artificial vision. From high-speed handling to assembly and human-machine collaboration, it develops innovative and reliable solutions tailored to meet its customers’ automation needs.
The Challenge
- Achieving reliable feeding of delicate components: Mascara brushes need to be handled carefully while ensuring proper distribution and orientation before robotic picking.
- Ensuring accurate component identification: Each brush must be correctly detected in terms of position and orientation so that the robot can perform fast and reliable picking.
- Maintaining flexibility across different formats: The system needed to manage multiple production recipes while keeping format changeovers simple and avoiding dedicated mechanical tooling.
The Solution
- Flexible feeding with FlexiBowl® 800: Mascara brushes are loaded in bulk into the hopper and distributed onto the FlexiBowl® 800, which uses vibration and surface movement to singulate and orient the components without dedicated tooling.
- Parallel brush insertion: A dedicated insertion system developed by Effedi Automation inserts the brushes into the bottles in parallel with the robot operations, eliminating a potential bottleneck and helping reduce overall cycle time.
- Easy recipe management: An intuitive HMI allows operators to create and modify recipes without programming skills. The system currently manages 12 recipes, while a new recipe can be configured in approximately 10 minutes
The Benefits
- High productivity: The automated solution achieves a throughput of 35 ppm, combining fast robotic handling with an efficient assembly process.
- Reduced cycle time: The dedicated insertion system operates in parallel with the robot, optimizing the overall process and eliminating a potential bottleneck.
- Vision-guided robotic picking: A vision system detects the position and orientation of each brush and sends the corresponding coordinates to the Epson robot, enabling fast and reliable picking and handling.
- Flexible production management: The system currently manages 12 recipes, with the possibility of future expansion, allowing the solution to adapt to different production requirements.