From machine tending to unmanned night operation - Production line Thermix
It is not enough for the robot to be able to attach and detach the workpiece; unmanned operation at night cannot be established.
Placing one robot does not automatically lead to unmanned operation at night. Thermix is designed as a production line that continuously handles supply, processing, transportation, cleaning, measurement, quality recording, and anomaly recovery without human intervention. The starting point is defining what processes we want to continue when humans are absent. From the target continuous operation time and production quantity, we backtrack to determine the capacity of the material stocker and finished product buffer. We incorporate variety composition, tool changes, measurement frequency, setup changes, and storage for work-in-progress during downtime. In a multi-machine setup where one robot is responsible for several machine tools, the overall takt balance of the production line is influenced by the robot's maximum speed. "When a robot is installed but operations stop at night" → Backtrack the supply and buffer capacity from the operation time. "When the finished product storage is full and stops" → Buffer design that absorbs takt differences and temporary stops between processes. "When inline measurement is unstable" → Prepare the pre-measurement stage with cleaning, air blowing, liquid draining, and posture alignment. "When small anomalies cause long downtimes" → Categorize retry, retreat and continue, and immediate stop for each type of anomaly. "When one person wants to monitor multiple machines" → Pre-design the priority of transportation requests and manual operation during stops. Please consult us to identify the judgments and recovery tasks performed by personnel on-site.
