Conveyors and Robots Join Forces for Precision Assembly

Farason Corp. is a Pennsylvania-based manufacturer specializing in the design and build of custom machinery and systems to perform assembly, manufacturing and packaging processes for everything from cosmetics to confections. When a client approached them with a novel application—placing and packaging several thousand commemorative coins a day—the company used vision-guided robots and precision conveyors.

For coin collectors, the overall presentation of the packaging is a large part of the appeal. Coin proof sets are billed as premium items that can increase in value over time, so it’s important that the integrity of the coins and packaging is preserved during processing.

“Our systems call for precision when working with robotics, and we need that same level of precise movements in our supporting conveyor systems,” says Joe Hurley, president of Farason.

The new system uses 13 vision-guided robots and 22 conveyors (Dorner Manufacturing). At the start of the process, six conveyors feed stacks of trays containing the six different coins to the tray-unloading robots. The robots remove the coins and place them onto one of six, 2-inch wide, servo-driven timing belt conveyors. Each conveyor is responsible for indexing its respective coins to a downstream location where a camera takes a picture of the coin to determine its orientation. Each conveyor is also paired with a coin-placing robot, which then picks the coin and places it within a coin insert well.

Meanwhile, another robot picks coin inserts from a stack and presents them to a camera to inspect for smudges, scratches and other imperfections. Passing inserts are then placed onto a 10-inch wide conveyor, from which they are placed into a device that flips the insert over to complete the downstream assembly. While in the flipping machine, top and bottom cameras inspect the insert to ensure the coins are present and properly oriented.

Hurley says the conveyors are ideal because of their low-profile design and their ability to move with precision at low speeds. Because they are easily programmable to work a variety of drive and control options, the conveyors are fully integrated into the robotics system.