Cobot Feeder Card-Monroe Case Study

“Our goal is to set up the machine tending using these trays so that we can react quicker. When the time comes to make some keys or connecting links, our setup is already there. We have several trays for each part. The materials are ready to go, and we can run smaller batches of keys as we need them in a very efficient and cost-effective manner.”
 - Reid Smith

Enhancing Manufacturing Efficiency at Card-Monroe

In today's competitive manufacturing landscape, companies are seeking innovative solutions to optimize production.
Card-Monroe Corp., a manufacturer of tufting machines for the carpet and turf industries, is no exception. Tufting machines are highly complex pieces of equipment made up of more than 50,000 parts. In recent years, Card-Monroe has been looking for ways to automate its manufacturing processes in order to improve efficiency and productivity.

One of the challenges the company faced was the need to produce small batches of precision parts, many of which are difficult, costly, and time consuming to make using traditional manufacturing methods. Though many of these parts are simple, the company didn’t want to tie up operators and equipment with their fabrication.  They wanted to move to lights-out manufacturing for many of these high-mix, low-volume parts, according to Card Monroe mechanical engineer Reid Smith.

“We faced several challenges in our manufacturing process including increasing labor costs due to manual material handling and CNC machine operation, downtime associated with material replenishment, and difficulty in scaling operations to meet growing demand during peak production periods,” says Smith.

To address these challenges, Card-Monroe adopted the Applied Cobotics Cobot Feeder  from PBC Linear. The Cobot Feeder is a computerized numerical control (CNC) machine-feeding application kit that delivers and stages parts to be placed into a machining process. By reliably loading and unloading dunnage trays that a cobot can consistently access, this versatile CNC machine-tending cobot support tool provides a standardized platform for storing, staging, and delivering parts into a position that the cobot can reach for loading and unloading.

The PBC Linear Cobot Feeder is an advanced automation solution designed to optimize material handling in manufacturing environments. The system enables precise and reliable feeding of materials to cobot work cells and production lines. Its features include compatibility with a wide range of materials and component types, an intuitive programming interface for ease of integration, and safety mechanisms that ensure human-robot collaboration.

The Cobot Feeder and cobot helped Card-Monroe maintain their position as an industry leader by enhancing production efficiency for several tufting machine components including two different shaft keys and aluminum connecting links.

Cobot Feeder Specifications

• Overall dimensions: 72" x 78" x 77"
• Weight: ~1400 lb
• Power required: 220V Single Phase
• Standard powder coated steel trays
• Tray dimensions: 18" x 26"
• Tray tower capacity: 17 Trays
• Tray load capacity: 50 lb

Card-Monroe - Manufacturer of Tufting Machines for Carpet, Rug, and Artificial Turf

Automation for Manufacturing Shaft Keys and Connecting Links

UR Cap Provides Control of both Cobot and Cobot Feeder

Configure 17 Trays for One Part or 17 Different Parts

High-Mix, Low-Volume Solution

Card-Monroe decided to automate the production of these shaft keys by first purchasing a Universal Robotics (UR) cobot to automatically load and unload parts into a CNC machine. The fact that cobots work safely alongside human operators was important for Card-Monroe because they wanted to automate the production of shaft keys without having to redesign their manufacturing facility.

Cobots are highly precise and can repeat their movements consistently. However, without a machine vision system, they cannot distinguish between a correctly oriented part and one that is out of alignment. Therefore, it was important to carefully plan and prepare the work area to keep an adequate supply of parts staged for the cobot to continuously place into the machining process.

“Like many other machine tending systems used in high-mix, low-volume manufacturing today, we were considering using a grid-plate system equipped with positioning pins that allow quick reconfiguration for different part geometries,” Smith explains. “However, this would have required an operator to constantly replenish the grid with new parts. Then a sales representative from PBC Linear, a company that manufactures linear motion components used in our tufting machines, mentioned a cobot feeder system that they recently developed for deployment in their own operations.”

The feeder system, named the Applied Cobotics Cobot Feeder, was a good fit for Card-Monroe because it was flexible and workers could set up several trays of parts in advance so the cobot could start picking and placing the parts when needed.

“Our goal is to set up the machine tending using these trays so that we can react quicker,” says Smith. “When the time comes to make some keys or connecting links, our setup is already there. We have several trays for each part. The materials are ready to go, and we can run smaller batches of keys as we need them in a very efficient and cost-effective manner.”