Robotic arm tool changer?

[LeeWay]

This effort was more about education for us and finding ways to increase our production with just two of us here now. A robot arm would have been more valuable to us if we had a higher volume per week. We only produce 20 to 25 of these guards per week, so low volume. It did help to increase our production though. Or shorten the time for assembly that is. Just building a prototype assembly jig made the whole process less fiddly and cut the assembly time in half. That helps.

The research also lead me back to 3D printing again. I had a Prusa that I made several years back. I sold it back then because the technology for it was not there for what we needed.
Now they can print Pet G and Polycarbonates. I bought an XYZ to see how it would work on our dust ports. It is a nice printer that can print with Pet G after a hotend upgrade. It does the job, but is incredibly slow. I would probably need 5 or 6 of those here to keep up with production.

So I started looking at commercial models. I did not like the price tag and material cost on those. I was about to dismiss the idea when I came across the Fusion3 F400.
https://www.fusion3design.com/f400-enclosed-3d-printer/

It has everything I was looking for in a 3D printer.
It is large enough to print several of our dust ports at once. Probably 5 times faster than the XYZ. Much more reliable. And it uses open source filaments. Not a ton of info out there on them, but I liked everything I saw. I ordered one of them and it should be here in a couple weeks.
This can reside in a back room and be producing finished dust ports all by itself. The material cost is about what we pay now for the real thing, but bending these ports by hand is an incredible time consuming and labor intensive operation. Lots of waste too when the don't form quite right.
I felt it was a good move. That frees up my Son of about a day and a half of labor each week. That has to equal increased production. Not only that but doing them by hand means that they were not identical, so there are variations. When printed, they will all be identical. I have also been wanting to put a little led light in them so darker shops might see the cut line better. 3D printing should make that much easier.
I will start a new thread when that arrives. Looking forward to it.

[Steve303]

Lee, a YouTuber posted all of his files for his 6 axis 3d printed robot arm. I thought it may be of interest to you.



Files: https://github.com/Chris-Annin/AR2

Steve

[LeeWay]

Thanks for that. I have seen a few of them, but that one is the most complete. I will keep an eye on that one.
I haven't had time to start any threads on our printers, but they are working out better than expected.
I have the one I linked above and a couple of smaller ones for other stuff.
They run 2 to 3 days a week. Nothing to it once you have your files and calibration set. Push the button and come back a little later to find close to finished parts.

[Steve303]

I'd be interested to learn more about your 3d printers.

The AR2 robot arm in the above video is the only complete one that I've seen. I downloaded the build instructions. They are amazingly well done. He has really put a lot of time and effort into his design. One built out of aluminum and 3d printed parts might do what you are looking for at a reasonable cost. No doubt it will take a lot of time and effort.

Steve

[LeeWay]

Now it seems that we will no longer need an ATC. I ordered one the other day. Should be here in about 3 more weeks. The good thing about this one is it comes with a new HAAS Mini Mill under it.
I will relate more about the 3D printers when I can. If you have specific questions, I'd be happy to answer them.
My two smaller printers are a Craftbot plus and a Flashforge pro.
Both pretty nice machines.

[Steve303]

Now it seems that we will no longer need an ATC. I ordered one the other day. Should be here in about 3 more weeks. The good thing about this one is it comes with a new HAAS Mini Mill under it.
I will relate more about the 3D printers when I can. If you have specific questions, I'd be happy to answer them.
My two smaller printers are a Craftbot plus and a Flashforge pro.
Both pretty nice machines.

Haas Mini Mill.... very nice.

Steve

[LeeWay]

Yeah. Pretty significant upgrade over the Pulsar. Now I gotta say we run the wheels off the Pulsar. It has been a very good machine for us. I would say it runs on average 36 hours a week now. The biggest reason I ordered the Haas was the tool changer. Secondary was to have a backup. Never hurts to have a backup. Then obvious performance increases.

Then a list of other reasons as well. We have another side product that we want to produce and just didn't have any available machine time to do it. I had been wanting a second machine anyway.
A dedicated 2nd op machine would have been more than the Haas. The 5% discount on the Haas offered in May did not hurt.
I just ordered the base package and added rigid tapping.

I certainly considered another Novakon as well as many others. The Haas just won out in the pros and cons checklists.

The 5% goes through the end of this month, June.

[Steve303]

I'd love to have a Haas as a backup machine to my Pulsar . With your production I can see the benefits of the tool changer. I might be wrong but I don't think Ray's tool changer will work with PathPilot.
Steve

[LeeWay]

Doesn't work with Path Pilot yet, but it may in the future. Never know what the future holds.
Yeah on the tool changer, it will absolutely save labor and increase production. If my Son is doing something else, the Pulsar goofs off when waiting for the tool.

[Steve303]

Lee, not sure if you are still thinking about a robot arm. There is one on kickstarter. Take a look!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...ts/description

[LeeWay]

Thanks, Steve.
While that one is pretty cool, I don't think it is a product yet. Not really something that is ready for Kickstarter. I think people want a finished product. That means at least a complete kit. There are plenty of these out there where you have to source and order your own parts and do the software end of things. That was not really what I was looking for.