Project Overview
In the CNC machining department of a leading foundry manufacturer, we fully roboticized the workpiece loading and CNC machine tending operations previously performed manually by floor operators.
Heavy cast parts traveling on an incoming conveyor needed to be picked up by an industrial robot and clamped precisely into the CNC machine fixture.
Because the castings weighed between 30–40 kg each, manual handling imposed extreme ergonomic strain, fatigue, and workplace safety hazards. The project objective was to automate heavy lifting and ensure consistent, highly repeatable CNC machine feeding without human intervention.
Conveyor Misalignment & Technical Challenges
Incoming 30–40 kg cast blocks never arrive in identical positions or orientations on the conveyor. When position shifts, hardcoded robot waypoints cannot reliably grasp the part.
Off-center grasping of 40 kg castings caused gripper slippage, dropped castings, improper fixture seating inside the CNC enclosure, and catastrophic tool collisions.
The ANAVIS Solution: Precision Vision Guidance (2 mm Accuracy on 70 cm Conveyor)
To provide the robot with real-time awareness of moving castings, we engineered an overhead 2D machine vision guidance system integrated directly into the conveyor line.
The vision sensor calculates the precise X, Y coordinates and angular orientation of each incoming casting. These spatial offsets are instantly relayed to the robot controller, allowing the gripper to dynamically align itself with the true physical center of the part.
The benchmark accomplishment was achieving 2 mm positioning accuracy across a wide 70 cm conveyor span.
How the System Works
- 01 Part Arrival: The 30–40 kg casting arrives on the 70 cm conveyor in an arbitrary orientation.
- 02 Vision Capture: Overhead industrial camera captures an image under high-contrast lighting.
- 03 Coordinate Calculation: Image processing determines the geometric center (X, Y) and rotational angle.
- 04 2 mm Coordinate Dispatch: Corrected position data is transmitted directly to the 6-axis robot.
- 05 Centered Grip Engagement: The heavy-duty gripper closes firmly around the casting's exact center of mass.
- 06 Precision CNC Clamping: The robot loads the part into the CNC chuck, and machining starts seamlessly.
