Light Industrial Manufacturing: A Navus Visual Case Study

March 12, 2022

Light Industrial Manufacturing: A Navus Visual Case Study

Navus

At Navus, we pride ourselves on our ability to meet whatever light industrial manufacturing challenges our clients may throw at us. Whether you’re interested in additive manufacturing, decreased safety risks, or just want to improve throughput, our engineers are ready to help you achieve your goals.

A client recently approached us about implementing automated processes to increase their production time. We partnered with ABB Robotics and CTM Labeling Systems to create a system that sorts the parts and puts them together. This new system increased their production to a rate of 24 finished parts per minute with the ability to have future layouts that won’t require changing their floor space requirements.

Goal: Update an Existing Light Industrial Manufacturing Process

A client recently presented us with an interesting challenge: utilize automation to improve production time in a complicated, multi-step light industrial manufacturing process. They wanted to speed up each part of the automation process to be completed in less than 2.5 seconds.

However, the automation system needed to be flexible in order to account for all the different parts of the production process. Another challenge was cost savings and efficiency. Our client wanted to automate the assembly process in line with their existing equipment without having to change their facility’s floor plan.

This required our system to:

Operate from a remote control panel
Rely on a flexible automation process connected to other processes within the facility
Automate the label application process
Insert nails into the part
Correctly nest different parts together
Monitor processes in real-time

On top of that, the system would need to be able to conduct a robotic quality check. This would ensure that nails would be inserted at a certain depth and parts would be nested correctly.

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Our Solution

Our team of Navus engineers partnered with ABB Robotics and CTM Labeling Systems to bring our client’s vision to life. They were able to develop a machine that fits in line with other pre-existing light industrial manufacturing processes to increase affordability. They were also able to achieve this without changing the floor plan of the client’s manufacturing facility.

How It Works

Our client’s new light industrial manufacturing machine starts by loading injection-molded plastic parts onto the feed conveyor. These parts are then singulated with an adhesive-backed paper UPC label at the in-feed conveyor escapement. From there, the parts continue down the conveyor to a side escapement where their height is checked with a thru-beam sensor.

Once the height has been checked, an IRB 360 robot moves the part from the side escapement nest and places it on a nail insertion nest. There, nails are blow-fed and inserted into the part. Any box that fails the height inspection is dropped into the rejection chute. The UPC code is read and verified by a Keyence SR-750 barcode reader.

A vibratory feeder escapes the next nail into a blow-feed and nail insertion is verified by the machine’s sensors. The IRB 360 robot then moves the first part that’s passed inspection to an out-feed nest. The second part that passes inspection is moved to a flip-over nest. This part is picked up by an IRB 120 robot and is placed for interlocking with the first part. The interlocked boxes are sent down a chute onto an out-feed conveyor by the out-feed pusher actuator.

To learn more about our work in light industrial manufacturing, click here!

Analyzing the Results

Navus’s engineers were able to significantly improve our client’s output. Once completed, the new system was able to produce items at a rate of 24 finished parts per minute. This actually exceeded our client’s expectations and greatly simplified the part changeover process.

The new machine was easily integrated into the existing system thanks to the use of injection molding equipment and packaging conveyor systems. This enabled our client to save a considerable amount of time and money compared to other alternatives. It also works as a foundation for future layouts that won’t require changing their floor space requirements.

What is Light Manufacturing?

The light manufacturing industry covers a broad range of products so it can seem hard to define on the surface. However, the definition of light industrial manufacturing on its most basic level means:

the manufacture of products, the process of which does not create and emit fumes, gases, smokes, vapours, vibrations, noise or glare or other factors which are regarded as nuisances which would cause adverse effects to the users of adjacent land.

Most manufacturers can be classified as light industry. Light manufacturing industry examples can include:

Consumer goods (e.g. office supplies)
Durable goods (e.g. household appliances)
Energy
Electronics

The team at Navus are experts in light industry manufacturing as well as medium and heavy. We’re experienced in finding solutions for industries of all scales and sizes. With our 20+ years legacy, we have a proven track record of providing automated solutions for light industry manufacturers.

Do you need help finding solutions for your light manufacturing problems? Click here to contact us today!

We recently completed a project for a client who wanted to boost their production using automated processes. Our Navus engineers accomplished this task by partnering with ABB Robotics and CTM Labeling Systems to create a system that sorts the parts and puts them together. This increased our client’s throughput to 24 finished parts per minute with the option to have future layouts that won’t require changing their floor space requirements.

Navus Automation Inc. is a leading full-service automation integrator. Our world-class team has a reputation for applying ingenuity to solve complex challenges and deliver customized turn-key systems solutions. From concept to completion, Navus provides robotic welding and automation systems built upon our unwavering commitment to excellence, precision and reliability

Light Industry Custom Automation

February 3, 2021

Back to the Future With Navus

Navus

Navus has been envisioning a future for our clients since 1998. The majority of our clients are repeat customers, no matter the scale of their industry or our project. When we partner with a client, we don’t just deliver a system and then say goodbye. We deliver new ideas that lead to greater opportunities for our clients’ businesses. In a way, our clients have become an important part of the Navus family, and we love any opportunity to continue working with them.

We recently had the rare opportunity to work with a customer on a machine we originally built for them 15 years ago! The machine was used on a consistent basis over the past 15 years to manufacture small parts in the medical industry, but it was clear they needed to either design a new machine or update the current one to meet their latest needs. Our team at Navus worked with our client to find the best solution for their needs. The result was our ability to revisit a piece of our company’s history, while solving a challenge for a valued client.

Should You Rebuild Your Current Machine? Or Invest in a New Machine?

Working in industrial manufacturing comes with a host of challenges and complexities on a regular basis, but our priority is always to find the perfect solution for your company.

When our client came back to us after 15 years of happily using the machine we originally built them, they came with a dilemma.

The machine they had used for the past 15 years to produce small parts for the medical industry worked the way they wanted it to. It produced legacy parts that are still relevant today, but there have also been important shifts and changes in the manufacturing world over the past 15 years. Our client wanted to know whether they should rebuild their current machine, or start over and invest in a new machine.

At Navus, we don’t just solve problems for our client — we partner with them to find the best solution for their needs. To solve our client’s dilemma, we started with a thorough evaluation of their current system. In order to make strong recommendations on their next step forward, we needed to understand the capacity at which they were currently operating, and what their goals for any future system would be.

Once our evaluation was complete, we delivered a detailed report weighing the costs and benefits of rebuilding their original machine versus building a completely new system. We’ve historically taken meticulous notes of how our solutions and systems are engineered. Referencing these detailed notes while we were evaluating our client’s system ultimately helped our client understand which option would work best for their goals.

Rebuilding Results in Peak Efficiency

The machines and systems that are on the production floor are an investment, and you want to invest in the systems that are going to bring you the best results. Our team’s initial step to evaluate our client’s current system ensured that we were considering the best outcome from multiple perspectives.

Our clients ultimately chose to rebuild the machine we previously built for them. They knew the system worked the way they needed it to, and it would only take a few updates to bring the machine in line with the 21st century.

From start to finish, the entire project was completed in 3 months. The end result was a machine rebuilt to exceed the original specifications, returned to our client in just a few weeks from starting the rebuild process. The new version of their machine runs at peak efficiency and continues to produce legacy products. Our client won’t have to worry about rebuilding or replacing this machine for years to come. It now does exactly what they need it to do, but even faster than before.

Engineering the Smartest Automation Solutions Since 1998

Navus’ ability to solve our clients’ challenges ultimately comes down to our team and history of excellence. Every one of our engineers is passionate about solving specific challenges for our clients who partner with us. At Navus, we don’t resort to the same solution other integrators offer. We’re dedicated to thinking outside of the box to ensure our turn-key system solutions accomplish what our competitors haven’t considered.

Partnering with Navus isn’t just about figuring out a solution for your current challenges. We promise to offer new ideas and solutions that create a better future for your manufacturing space and company.

Navus Automation, Inc., is a leading full-service automation integrator. Our world-class team has a reputation for applying ingenuity to solve complex challenges and deliver customized turn-key systems solutions. From concept to completion, Navus provides robotic welding and automation systems built upon our unwavering commitment to excellence, precision, and reliability.

For more information on how our team can help you solve complex challenges in your manufacturing facility, reach out to us today!

Light Industry

October 29, 2020

Visual Case Study: Custom Automation for Dynamic Productivity in Light Industrial Manufacturing

Navus

At NAVUS we develop and design projects of all scales and levels. Sometimes the projects we do are focused on achieving a process design that seemed impossible for our clients due to complexity or scale. Our engineers excel at tasks and projects that take a complicated process and streamline it to suit your company’s needs.

Recently we acquired a client that already had automated processes within their facility for the production of a particular product, however, their downstream process required these products to change orientation in order to be packaged correctly without associate intervention. Our engineers were given specific goals, materials, and space to work with in order to create the custom automated process and integrate it with existing processes within our client’s manufacturing facility. Not only did we have very specific parameters, but the product itself was complicated. Our client needed assembly of multiple components to be accomplished within the space they dedicated to our process. The finished process would have to be dynamic in multiple ways.

To complete this project, our engineers needed to:

Design an automated process that integrated with existing processes within our client’s manufacturing facility
Keep the footprint of the process small, meaning multiple stages of assembly had to happen in the same process enclosure
Ensure that the process could nest multiple parts precisely together to comply with downstream packaging systems

The finished process was proposed to produce 24 parts per minute with the supervision of only one operator. These specific guidelines and requests from our client were definitely different from the projects we typically highlight:

The scale of the product itself is smaller than the products and parts we typically engineer custom automation processes for
The variables we had to keep in mind while designing and engineering the process made it a much more complex project
The finished process needed to work with other processes in the facility, but we could still make it something completely unique for our client

All of the variables and complexity presented an intriguing and unique project for our engineers to navigate. Together with our valuable vendors, we designed an automated process that worked and looked more refined than our clients could have imagined. To discover more about how Navus engineers used robotics to design a custom automation process that worked for our client’s needs, you can experience it all through our free visual case study, Custom Automation for Dynamic Productivity in Light Industrial Manufacturing, by clicking here to download.

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Light Industry

September 10, 2020

Feature Project: A Dynamic, Custom Process for Light Industry Manufacturing

Navus

Automation in manufacturing can involve parts that are multiple tons, but also parts that are smaller and more focused on consumer-based products. Think about it. Any small item you can find in large quantities in a chain store has to be mass-produced somehow. While Navus usually specializes in helping manufacturers in medium and heavy industries, that isn’t always the case.

The Manufacturing Challenge

One of our recently featured projects is all about how we helped a client by engineering a custom automation process built with dynamic productivity in mind. They already had a pre-existing process in a specified space in their facility. Our engineers had precise parameters to keep in mind, both in regard to the facility space and the pre-existing process.

The Automated Solution

Our engineers had to:

Engineer a new, dynamic, custom automation process that would integrate with pre-existing processes
Design a way for multiple steps of the new process to happen in the same space to keep the footprint small
Make sure the new process that did multiple steps in the same space also correctly puts small parts together with minimal input from associates

Discover more about this project!

The finished process gave our clients even better results than they had dreamed or asked for. Navus Automation Inc. specializes in making the impossible, possible. Our world-class team has a reputation for applying ingenuity to solve complex challenges and deliver customized turn-key systems solutions. From concept to completion, Navus provides robotic welding and automation systems built upon our unwavering commitment to excellence, precision, and reliability.

Get Started Today!

Light Industry