Unmanned Production Lines are Put into Operation

At YIZUMI’s injection machine manufacturing workshop, an automated trolley wheel production line is currently being put into operation. From material feeding to injection molding, inserts conveying and inserting, product picking up, packing and placing, warehousing, etc., the entire production process runs automatically. The trolley wheel produced will be used as an assembly unit for injection molding machine, eliminating the need for external procurement.

This is an all-new trolley wheel production automation solution created by YIZUMI that integrates the self-developed mold design, injection molding machine, non-standard automatic equipment, and MES system to form a data- and information-driven, standardized automated production system.

Trolley wheel automatic production integrated solution

As a benchmark project reflecting YIZUMI’s capabilities in system integration, the integrated solution for automated trolley wheel production involves technologies covering the entire plastic processing ecology encompasses raw materials, molds, processes, injection molding equipment, automation units, and industrial interconnection technology. Equipped with the Direct Compounding Injection Molding (DCIM) technology, drying-free system, UN160A5S injection molding machine, 4-cavity mold, robot, post-processing automated units (SCARA robot, stacker, finished goods storage module, heating unit for materials loaded with bearings, low-speed granulator, storage container, AGV trolley, and safety fence). Integrated automated production line handles the entire process from raw material to finished goods warehousing.

Raw material processing: Direct Compounding Injection Molding (DCIM)

The automated trolley wheel production starts from material mixing.

With the Direct Compounding Injection Molding (DCIM), an all-new process developed by YIZUMI, the commissioning engineer can set the weight ratio of raw materials on the operation panel interface - 70%PA6+30%GF and adjust the feed speed for hunger feeding. DCIM process puts the raw materials into production directly without the extrusion and pelletizing, achieving higher energy efficiency and a more environmentally friendly process while reducing the costs of raw material mixing, packaging, and logistic support.

Injection Molding：

Highlight ①: Drying-free processing technology

During the injection process, due to the hygroscopicity of PA material, it generally requires a drying treatment in advance to avoid material degradation and gas marks on the product.

YIZUMI’s integrated solution provides a new technology that requires no drying treatment, namely extruding moisture from PA6 material by using a screw of special structure during plasticizing process. The extruded moisture will then be extracted from the plasticizing barrel to achieve the drying-free effect. The energy-efficient vacuum extraction system only starts during the plasticizing process, consuming less energy without affecting the extraction result.

Compared with the conventional vented screw, YIZUMI’s drying-free technology offers the advantages of low energy consumption, small footprint of vacuum equipment, stable plasticizing process, easier and safer operation and maintenance.

Highlight ②: High-efficiency hydraulic mold changing system

YIZUMI’s integrated solution adopts a hydraulic clamping system, making the operation easy and simple. It takes only one click to load or unload the mold immediately, allowing quick mold change, less labor requirement, and safe operation.

Post-processing automation

Highlight ①: Safety fence

The safety fence is interconnected with the automated production system. All equipment becomes non-operational when the fence door is open to ensure the safety of operating personnel!

Highlight ②: Automated inserts conveying, inserting, and finished product extraction

Trolley wheels need to have bearings embedded during the process. YIZUMI’s integrated solution allows a quick and easy change of materials: the robot will extract four finished trolley wheels and place them in the finished goods storage area. Then, it will place the 4 bearings with tooling preheated to 80~90℃ into the mold. The trolley wheel extraction and bearing embedding are completed in one step, resulting in shorter placement time and unmanned operation.

Highlight ③: In-mold visual monitoring system

The in-mold visual monitoring system is interconnected with the injection molding machine and the robot. It will check during each molding cycle whether the product is completely extracted and the bearing is inserted in place. It also protects molds to ensure production safety.

Highlight ④: Automated warehousing of finished products

In this solution, YIZUMI has achieved automation in processes such as product placement, packing, storage container stacking and conveying, and material delivery by AGV.

The SCARA robot will pick up the trolley wheels from the finished goods storage group, place them in the empty storage container on the stacker, and fill the containers in turn. The container will be moved down by one level when it is full, while an empty container is moved up by one level to be filled. The cycle keeps running till the preset number of containers is full. An AGV will then be called automatically to move away the containers with finished goods.

The AGV can automatically transport both empty and full containers. It will transport the empty containers from the dock to the stacker and full containers from the stacker to the dock, realizing unmanned operation in the entire process.

Highlight ⑤: Intelligent interconnection: 100% traceability of the product process

Supported by the YiMES intelligent execution system, YIZUMI’s integrated solution provides customers with high-quality production control through various professional tools such as PO management, production management, quality management, process management, production monitoring, energy consumption management, and mold management, allowing customers to have standards before production, proper control during production, and traceability after production. Currently, it has achieved 100% system management of PO progress, and 100% monitoring, early warning, and traceability on product process.

Highlight ⑥: Create a digital twin through AR technology

The integrated solution for automated trolley wheels production allows customers to have a clear view of the operation process in the injection molding machine, the robot, the centralized compact feeding system, the auxiliary equipment, and the post-processing automation through the construction of a digital twin and online 3D simulation modeling.

In the real-time digital twin mode, users can not only observe the operation on an app, but also check the pressure, oil temperature, flow rate and other real-time parameters of the equipment at any time.

“The integrated solution for automated injection molding production starts from the consistency of raw materials and processes”

In the automation field of injection molding production, the real pain point for customers is the lack of standards and data for raw materials and processes. Some customers have no standards for raw materials and change them frequently. The production process and product inspection rely heavily on the personal experience of the operators. Although the product may ultimately be successfully produced, the repeatability, yield, and capacity of the production cannot be effectively guaranteed.

These issues will take a toll on the operation of the entire production system. A stable automated production is warranted only when high-level stability among each production section and great consistency between raw materials and processes are kept.

Taking into consideration of customer value, YIZUMI provided the integrated solution for injection molding production automation and worked closely with customers to tackle the issues. By quantifying the process parameters of raw materials, processes, and products, YIZUMI achieved the standardization and digitization of the entire production process. Based on that, YIZUMI tailor-made the non-standard equipment for customers and is now able to provide an integrated solution.

More importantly, in addition to offering the injection molding machine with automation equipment, the injection molding production automation solution has realized production standardization and digitization, allowing every step of the production to have a standardized and stable process, and information to have an effective transmission. Empowered by the system integration capability, YIZUMI is now offering integrated solutions covering raw material, process, mold, injection molding machine, automation unit, and industrial interconnection and has found applications in medical, home appliances, and 3C industries.

——Wu Xunyang, Automation Project Manager of YIZUMI Technology Center