Morgan Advanced Materials consulted with RG Luma Automation to automate the handling of small ceramic components — specifically focusing on the loading and unloading processes between machines, as well as transferring finished parts into baskets. The objective was to streamline a highly manual and repetitive workflow that had become a bottleneck in production efficiency and quality consistency.
Manual Process Prior to automation, operators were responsible for manually loading a high volume of coin-shaped ceramic parts onto a lapping machine. The lapping process involves using abrasive solution and action to achieve a precise flatness or surface finish on one side of each part. Operators had to ensure each part was correctly positioned, with the designated side on the lapping surface.
Once the lapping cycle was complete, the operators manually off-loaded the parts into trays and transported them to the next processing stage. Given the high volume and small size of the parts, this manual handling — repeated in quick succession — often led to inconsistencies in both cycle throughput and part quality, primarily due to part overlapping and human error.
Challenges:
Minimise downtime caused by manual intervention and variability.
Reduce overall cycle time to increase throughput.
Improve quality and consistency by ensuring precise, repeatable part handling.
Small parts with subtle symmetrical feature differences to be oriented and placed correctly.
Solution:
Due to the number of positions, reach and footprint, robotic arms were selected for their speed and versatility in reaching multiple positions, as well as dexterity to manoeuvre around in confined spaces. Bowl feeders were ideal for sorting the small parts, orienting and feeding them consistently into the cell. Small Scara robots pick the parts in pairs and places them in specific patterns to maximise the utilisation of space. Parts are then carefully transferred by the robot arms to the lapping machine, maintaining the positions to fit within the lapping rings and prevent overlapping. After lapping is complete, the robots retrieves the processed parts and loads them onto an outfeed conveyor which dispenses the parts out of the cell and into submerged baskets.
Results:
The implementation of the robotic cell delivered a significant improvement in operational performance. Machine downtime was drastically reduced, resulting in a remarkable 232% increase in production output.
The solution also delivered a rapid return on investment in under 12 months, made possible by eliminating the need for four lapping machines and eight manual operators.
In addition to these productivity gains, part quality and consistency improved substantially, leading to a notable reduction in reject rates and enhancing overall process reliability.