Robotic Automation Success Stories

Major US based orthopaedic joint producer benefits from extensive unmanned run times with Agile Flex

The large capacity of the Agile Flex 35D drawers coupled with the integrated, in-process CMM gauging maintaining the quality affords a major US based orthopaedic joint producer confident, extensive unmanned run times. The CNC machine is now able to be run, without operators, 24 hours a day.

Agile Flex brings productivity gains to major orthopaedic joint producer 

This Agile Flex machine loading system with a Fanuc M-20iA/35M robot, features our standard Flex 35D with eight drawers and, in addition to loading and unloading multiple orthopaedic hip-cup sizes into the Mazak Integrex i100ST, includes automatic loading into a CMM for in-process gauging and live machining feedback.

The scope of the system was to automatically load, unload and measure a range of orthopaedic hip-cup inserts for a major producer of orthopaedic joints based in Tennessee.

The Agile Flex 35D, configured with eight drawers for maximum productivity, can be loaded with different size products in each drawer with the robot selecting the appropriate CNC program where required.

After machining the parts to very tight dimensional tolerances, the M-20iA/35M robot removes the finished part and loads it into the CMM where a full dimensional measuring cycle in undertaken. All relevant feedback from these measurements is fed back directly to the Mazak Integrex i100ST which makes adjustments to the program for the next part. This serves to keep all parts within tolerance across long unmanned shifts.

Once the part is confirmed to be dimensionally accurate, the robot removes the part from the CMM and returns it to the Agile Flex drawer system then moves on to the next part in production.