Intelligent automation of an expanded polypropylene production cell

Polycon是一家位于安大略省圭尔夫的大型汽车工厂。它是麦格纳外部部门的一部分，专门制造基于聚合物的身体部件，如筋膜。它有大约1400名员工。Polycon的制造工艺之一是扩大聚丙烯生产(EPP)，首先将不同的树脂混合物混合在一起，使用注塑机生产原始成型零件。零件从机器出来，随机落到传送带上，在那里它们被转移到印刷机操作员手中，后者必须对零件进行分类、检查、标记，最后将零件放在轨道上进行固化，然后再进行包装。一旦零件固化/冷却一段时间后，它们就被装进客户的盒子或架子里。在这个过程中有两个主要的问题。首先，操作员在分拣和检查零件时的精度必须接近100%。这是因为贴错标签的零件可能会导致客户装配厂的生产线停产，从而给Polycon带来非常大的成本。其次，连续抓取部件并弯曲将其放入机架或盒子中可能会导致反复拉伤。虽然改进的培训降低了这两个挑战的影响，但最好的解决方案是自动化该过程。该提案的目标是自动化EPP部件的分类、检查、标签和包装过程。拟议的自动化系统将使用先进的机器视觉和抓取计划技术，并结合适当的机械臂来执行这些任务，而不会对车间布局或生产过程产生重大影响。我们预计，这种自动化将保证流程的重复性，并减少EPP工作单元的劳动力含量，这可能会对Polycon的运营费用和整体竞争力产生重大影响。

Polycon is a major automotive plant located in Guelph, Ontario. It is part of Magna Exterior division and specializes in manufacturing polymer based body parts like fascia. It has around 1400 employees. One of Polycon's manufacturing processes, expanded polypropylene production (EPP), starts with mixing different blends of resin to manufacture the raw moulded parts using injection moulding presses. The parts come out of the machine and fall randomly onto a conveyor where they are moved to a press operator who must sort, inspect, label and finally place the parts on a rail to be cured prior to packaging. Once the parts are cured/cooled for a specified period of time, they are packed into customer boxes or racks.There are two main problems in this process. First, operator precision in sorting and inspecting parts must be close to 100%. This is because mislabeled parts can lead to stoppage of the production line at the customer assembly plant resulting in very significant cost to Polycon. Second the continuous grabbing of parts and bending to place them into a rack or box can lead to repetitive strain injuries. While improved training has lead to reduced impact of both challenges, the best solution is to automate the process.The objective of this proposal is to automate the EPP parts sorting, inspecting, labeling, and packaging process. The proposed automation system will use advanced machine vision and grasp planning techniques integrated with suitable robot arms to perform these tasks without significant impact on the shop floor layout or production process. We expect this automation to guarantee the process repeatability and reduce the labour content of the EPP work cell which can lead to significant impact on Polycon's operational expenses and overall competitiveness.