A UK based company needed a fully automatic system to feed,
magnetise and load magnets into a plastic housing being assembled on a
rotary table. The rare earth magnets being only 2mm square in
section
and 4mm long.
The unmagnetised magnets were fed by a vibratory bowl feeder
down an inclined chute through the magnetising coil. Each
magnetising
pulse would saturate 15 magnets within the coil. The magnetised
magnets
were then orientated and lifted through a search coil by pneumatically
operated cylinders. The signal from the search coil being
connected to
a Hirst Integrating Fluxmeter to perform 100% testing of each magnet.
The vacuum pick and place head then transferred good parts
over to the plastic housing on the rotary table or dispensed reject
magnets into a reject box. The control of the pneumatics, and interface
with the magnetiser and Fluxmeter, were undertaken by the customers PLC.
The contract value of this project was in excess of
£25,000
