"We Produced More in a Day than All of Last Week!"
RHT Automatic Spiral Taping Machine Boosts Productivity
Recently a quality engineer at a company producing automotive ignition harnesses contacted CAM. He had been challenged to double his company's harness production within six months without lowering quality or increasing the plant's labor force.
We proposed that he use a CAM RHT Automatic Spiral Taping machine to tape his harnesses. But it wasn't that simple, he needed convincing. The video and pictures he sent of his taping cell showed us what we needed to do.
Inconsistencies and manual processes:
Some of his harnesses had many breakouts with large connectors, others were 30 feet long and were heavy. The harnesses were mounted on large peg boards with each breakout stretched out across many pegs. In front of the board were a half dozen people hand taping with small tape rolls. Winding the roll of tape around the harness over, and over again while pulling the tape taught and holding the harness so it didn't come off the board.
Testing at CAM to reveal best solutions and success
As our RHT Taping Machine is a tabletop machine we knew he couldn't use it to tape the harnesses on his peg board. The harness would need to be fed into the machine, taped and then placed on the peg board for final assembly. So after getting sample harnesses and rolls of tape from the customer, CAM's engineers began a series of taping tests using our RHT machine here at CAM.
This internal testing of the customers harness, and tape is completed by CAM engineers in order to ensure that the machine we are recommending is the right machine for the customer's application. It helps us identify any modifications that may be required to enable the machine to better wrap the work piece. It also confirms that the customer's tape selection will work well in the machine. Tapes have different adhesive, flexibility and strength characteristics that may make one work better than another when applied by machine.
Some customers have applications requiring the use of non adhesive tape, paper, film or tape that requires a backing material to be removed to expose the adhesive side of the tape. There are machine modifications available to accommodate all of these different variables.
In the case of our automotive cable customer, our testing showed that the hole on our taping machine's plastic guards through which the harness would past needed to be increased in size to allow the large connectors to past through. A second modification was needed to increase the size of the drive rollers that pull the harness through the tape head. These larger rollers added a few hundred dollars to the cost of the machine but they allowed the entire 30 foot long harness to be easily moved past the taping head without jamming. A third modification was suggested to the customer to increase the O.D. and reduce the I.D. of his tape rolls in order to provide additional tape on each roll. This would reduce the number of tape roll changes needed during the course of the day and increase productivity of the cell.
The engineer was convinced and took our proposal and recommendations to senior management who in turn ordered a single machine to do what traditionally had been done by hand. A few weeks after shipping the machine the customer called asking how fast he could get three more RHT machines.
“Our ROI was completed on our new machine, it has paid for itself already in labor and time! The RHT paid for itself in less than 5 months!” – Brady L. Riehle, Industrial Engineer for Crystal Group, Iowa
Recently a quality engineer at a company producing automotive ignition harnesses contacted CAM. He had been challenged to double his company's harness production within six months without lowering quality or increasing the plant's labor force.
We proposed that he use a CAM RHT Automatic Spiral Taping machine to tape his harnesses. But it wasn't that simple, he needed convincing. The video and pictures he sent of his taping cell showed us what we needed to do.
Inconsistencies and manual processes:
Some of his harnesses had many breakouts with large connectors, others were 30 feet long and were heavy. The harnesses were mounted on large peg boards with each breakout stretched out across many pegs. In front of the board were a half dozen people hand taping with small tape rolls. Winding the roll of tape around the harness over, and over again while pulling the tape taught and holding the harness so it didn't come off the board.
Testing at CAM to reveal best solutions and success
As our RHT Taping Machine is a tabletop machine we knew he couldn't use it to tape the harnesses on his peg board. The harness would need to be fed into the machine, taped and then placed on the peg board for final assembly. So after getting sample harnesses and rolls of tape from the customer, CAM's engineers began a series of taping tests using our RHT machine here at CAM.
This internal testing of the customers harness, and tape is completed by CAM engineers in order to ensure that the machine we are recommending is the right machine for the customer's application. It helps us identify any modifications that may be required to enable the machine to better wrap the work piece. It also confirms that the customer's tape selection will work well in the machine. Tapes have different adhesive, flexibility and strength characteristics that may make one work better than another when applied by machine.
Some customers have applications requiring the use of non adhesive tape, paper, film or tape that requires a backing material to be removed to expose the adhesive side of the tape. There are machine modifications available to accommodate all of these different variables.
In the case of our automotive cable customer, our testing showed that the hole on our taping machine's plastic guards through which the harness would past needed to be increased in size to allow the large connectors to past through. A second modification was needed to increase the size of the drive rollers that pull the harness through the tape head. These larger rollers added a few hundred dollars to the cost of the machine but they allowed the entire 30 foot long harness to be easily moved past the taping head without jamming. A third modification was suggested to the customer to increase the O.D. and reduce the I.D. of his tape rolls in order to provide additional tape on each roll. This would reduce the number of tape roll changes needed during the course of the day and increase productivity of the cell.
The engineer was convinced and took our proposal and recommendations to senior management who in turn ordered a single machine to do what traditionally had been done by hand. A few weeks after shipping the machine the customer called asking how fast he could get three more RHT machines.
“Our ROI was completed on our new machine, it has paid for itself already in labor and time! The RHT paid for itself in less than 5 months!” – Brady L. Riehle, Industrial Engineer for Crystal Group, Iowa
BUTTERFLY TAPING MACHINE
Solution for inconsistent tape wrapping quality and low production throughput.
A busy OEM had a bottleneck in their exciter line. Large metal rings with lots of break out tabs were being hand taped by a half dozen employees. The Rings required multiple layers of tape and at each of the dozens of breakout tabs the person hand taping the ring had to carefully butterfly wrap the tape back and forth around the tab before continuing taping down the length of the ring. Needless to say, during the 8 hour work shift the quality of the tedious hand taping suffered as the worker's attention wandered and the day grew long. The result was inconsistent tape wrapping quality and low production throughput.
It was taking several hours to produce a completed exciter ring.
Working closely with the customer's in-house engineers, CAM's design team created a horizontal ring taping concept using 3-D mechanical design software. We started by designing a multi-roll tape head that could apply two pancake rolls of tape simultaneously. The head design included tape tension components to maintain a tight wrap through all the gyrations that the head had to perform while moving around the ring and avoiding the break out tabs.
Next our design engineers gave the machine the ability to sense the location of the tabs so that it could detect the tab and slow down and stop one tape width away from the tab. The head was constructed so that it could turn to the left and right to wrap tape around the tab in a butterfly motion. Once the tab was wrapped the head continued down the ring to the next tab and repeated the process.
The machine was made fully programmable so that it could be used to tape many different ring sizes.
When the concept was finished the OEM's engineers calculated that the machine could produce a finished ring every 12 to 18 minutes depending on the size of the ring. Once programmed, the operator could call up the appropriate ring taping recipe in the machine's PLC data base, place a metal ring in the machine's clamps, press the tape to the ring at the start point and press the start button and walk away. The machine would do all the rest automatically. It even summoned the operator when the ring taping was complete so that he could remove the finished taped ring.
A busy OEM had a bottleneck in their exciter line. Large metal rings with lots of break out tabs were being hand taped by a half dozen employees. The Rings required multiple layers of tape and at each of the dozens of breakout tabs the person hand taping the ring had to carefully butterfly wrap the tape back and forth around the tab before continuing taping down the length of the ring. Needless to say, during the 8 hour work shift the quality of the tedious hand taping suffered as the worker's attention wandered and the day grew long. The result was inconsistent tape wrapping quality and low production throughput.
It was taking several hours to produce a completed exciter ring.
Working closely with the customer's in-house engineers, CAM's design team created a horizontal ring taping concept using 3-D mechanical design software. We started by designing a multi-roll tape head that could apply two pancake rolls of tape simultaneously. The head design included tape tension components to maintain a tight wrap through all the gyrations that the head had to perform while moving around the ring and avoiding the break out tabs.
Next our design engineers gave the machine the ability to sense the location of the tabs so that it could detect the tab and slow down and stop one tape width away from the tab. The head was constructed so that it could turn to the left and right to wrap tape around the tab in a butterfly motion. Once the tab was wrapped the head continued down the ring to the next tab and repeated the process.
The machine was made fully programmable so that it could be used to tape many different ring sizes.
When the concept was finished the OEM's engineers calculated that the machine could produce a finished ring every 12 to 18 minutes depending on the size of the ring. Once programmed, the operator could call up the appropriate ring taping recipe in the machine's PLC data base, place a metal ring in the machine's clamps, press the tape to the ring at the start point and press the start button and walk away. The machine would do all the rest automatically. It even summoned the operator when the ring taping was complete so that he could remove the finished taped ring.
CUSTOM TAPING MACHINE CHALLENGE:
How Did CAM Help a Customer Customer Provide Test Pieces More Easily & Economically with a Custom Taping Solution?
A company that made insulating materials like PTFE or polyimide film for wire had a problem developing test samples when researching new products. In order to get a sample for testing, they would have to produce a roll of material and then ask one of their wire-manufacturing customers to make up a sample reel with the test material. This was inefficient, expensive and research was often delayed waiting for the customer to reach a convenient time to make the sample wire. There had to be a better way!
They could install an elaborate wire covering line just to make samples or they could call CAM for a Custom Solution.
THE CAM SOLUTION:
CAM developed a bench top machine that wrapped the tape on the wire and pulled the wire into an oven to cure the covering. The machine was designed with a small footprint in order to fit in their space challenged laboratory. Our design team's concept incorporated all of the process steps required to make and test the samples they needed and now the customer's research technicians can make whatever test pieces they require quickly and easily without leaving their lab. This has enabled the client to develop new solutions for their customers more quickly and at a much lower cost.
Call us and we'll set up a telephone conference with our machine designers. Let's discuss your special application and let us guide you through the custom tape machine solution process.
A company that made insulating materials like PTFE or polyimide film for wire had a problem developing test samples when researching new products. In order to get a sample for testing, they would have to produce a roll of material and then ask one of their wire-manufacturing customers to make up a sample reel with the test material. This was inefficient, expensive and research was often delayed waiting for the customer to reach a convenient time to make the sample wire. There had to be a better way!
They could install an elaborate wire covering line just to make samples or they could call CAM for a Custom Solution.
THE CAM SOLUTION:
CAM developed a bench top machine that wrapped the tape on the wire and pulled the wire into an oven to cure the covering. The machine was designed with a small footprint in order to fit in their space challenged laboratory. Our design team's concept incorporated all of the process steps required to make and test the samples they needed and now the customer's research technicians can make whatever test pieces they require quickly and easily without leaving their lab. This has enabled the client to develop new solutions for their customers more quickly and at a much lower cost.
Call us and we'll set up a telephone conference with our machine designers. Let's discuss your special application and let us guide you through the custom tape machine solution process.
Keeping it Untangled: Custom Comprehensive Line
Customer's Need/Requirement: The customer needed a complete manufacturing line for a new precision cable assembly to unspool up to 9 wires and bind them together with a controlled twist to ensure even electrical properties. Once the bundle was created it had to be covered with film tape and a consistent overlap and respooled so that it could be moved to the next operation.
CAM's Solution: A custom comprehensive line was created by combining several proven components. The wire spools are mounted on shafts on a rotating frame. Each spool has a rotating frame and an individual brake to produce tension in the wire so that it is straight and taut while being formed into the bundle. The frame rotates the spools at the preset speed to produce the programmed twist.
Wires are gathered into a rotating die which ensure perfect alignment. Once combined, the bundle passes through an FT Taping Head to apply the film cover tape. The taped bundle is wrapped onto a spool. A precision layering device guides the wires onto the spool so that the bundle is evenly placed and does not become tangled. The drive system pulls with constant force to help the bundles on the spool tight.
This is an example of how CAM combines our proven technology for machine integration automation into a comprehensive line.
CAM's Solution: A custom comprehensive line was created by combining several proven components. The wire spools are mounted on shafts on a rotating frame. Each spool has a rotating frame and an individual brake to produce tension in the wire so that it is straight and taut while being formed into the bundle. The frame rotates the spools at the preset speed to produce the programmed twist.
Wires are gathered into a rotating die which ensure perfect alignment. Once combined, the bundle passes through an FT Taping Head to apply the film cover tape. The taped bundle is wrapped onto a spool. A precision layering device guides the wires onto the spool so that the bundle is evenly placed and does not become tangled. The drive system pulls with constant force to help the bundles on the spool tight.
This is an example of how CAM combines our proven technology for machine integration automation into a comprehensive line.
