FANUC 200iD 7L Robot & Tongtai TMV-510T+APC Automation System
The Tongtai TMV-510T+APC is a milling and tapping machining center with a built-in rotary pallet changer. This machine, together with the FANUC 200iD 7L robot, is doing various milling and drilling operations in various shaft sizes and lengths.
Along with fully adjustable, flexible, integrated hydraulic clamping fixture system, it allows the customer to do quick changeovers from job to job in an automated system. To satisfy the annual order, these operations were once done across 3 different machining centers with more dedicated fixturing, creating long set up / change over times between different jobs. This along with the use of more “traditional” vertical machining centers, was very inefficient, with spindle up times in the 40% range of utilization.
This for Standby Screw was a common practice as it “is the way we have always done it.”  At first it was not a bad practice, but as production levels began to ramp up, before you know it, you have multiple spindles, duplicated fixtures, and a lot of machinists to man the entire cell. Now that the single automated Tongtai TMV-510T+APC,  FANUC robot and conveyor cell has been installed, the entire process can now mill/drill up to 18 different part numbers with quick change overs, and with spindle run times in the +85% range.  This single cell outperforms the old cells that utilized 3 different machining centers, and allows Standby Screw to use quality personnel on other jobs where their expertise is better utilized.
Read more about Standby Screw in this recent article in Production Machining Magazine.
