Dual-CNC Machine Tending Robot

The Brother S500 Machine Tending Robot consists of a 6-axis robot using a custom designed end of arm tool with knife handle blank, partially machined, and fully machined part handling capabilities. The system also consists of two custom automatic CNC doors with Fanuc Aux-Axis servos and the necessary control systems.

Operators load and fill recipe-specific magazines with recipe-specific handle blanks and load the recipe specific fixturing onto the CNC machine.

The magazine indexing slides index knife handle blanks from the magazines for the robot to pick. The robot picks handle blanks from the slides and places them into the CNC machine fixtures for machining. After the first machining operation is complete, the robot picks the part, flips it 180 degrees, and places it in the corresponding left or right handle component fixture for the second machining operation. The robot then places another blank in the CNC machine fixture. The robot picks completed knife handles and places them in the corresponding finished product totes. This process repeats until the magazines are empty, with the robot alternating between tending the left and right CNC machines. Throughput is maximized this way, with the robot tending one CNC machine while the other is performing its machining operations.