Sprue BarCastingProcess Improvement

Abstract

The objective of this project is to improve the current wax sprue bar production rate at Matrix Industries from five sprue bars per hour to a minimum of 50 sprue bars per hour. The project team has designed a robot system that has the capacity to produce 146 sprue bars per hour. This system consists of a FANUC R-2000iC/125L robot, a SCHUNK PZN-plus 160-2-AS-SD gripper, and a sprue bar rack designed by the team to allow the robot to produce seven sprue bars of any type simultaneously. The deliverables of the project include a Bill of Materials and a Computer-Aided Design model of the robot system. The cost of the robot, operator training for the robot, and the gripper is , resulting in a payback period of approximately . Although this is outside of the initial project cost constraint, the system may also be implemented into Matrix Industries’ ceramic coating process, decreasing the payback period dramatically. Apart from the initial cost constraint, the robot system meets or exceeds all other project constraints. At 9 ft x 5 ft, the workplace area of this wax sprue bar process is within the 9 ft x 7 ft constraint. The sprue hardening time of the robot system is two minutes, which is less than the constraint of15 minutes. Finally, the robot system is capable of producing wax sprues that meet the quality standards of Matrix Industries. Although the FANUC robot and the SCHUNK gripper were selected by the team, the overall system is compatible with any robot or gripper that meet the client’s requirements. However, if Matrix Industries decides to implement a robot system, it is recommended that the proper cost analysis, safeguarding techniques, infrastructure capabilities, and commissioning methods are researched before implementation.