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SONY España, S.A., whose production plant is located in Viladecavalls (Barcelona), has placed its trust in TMI for the design and supply of several packing stations for its production lines of BRAVIA model flat-screen television sets in 6 different formats.

The packing stations consist of the following elements:

-        ROBOSAC P3 model portal-type handling robot using 3 Cartesian axes with axis control (CNC).

-        Independent fourth axis for separating screens and supports.

-        Input conveyor belt of the television sets with their respective supports/bases.

-        Input conveyor belt of empty cardboard boxes.

-        Output conveyor belts of supports/bases: two units, one to place the supports underneath the screens inside the boxes, the other to place them on top.

The operative system of each packing station is as follows:

1. The screens are transported to the handling portal, on their respective supports, by means of a conveyor belt.
2. A mechanism separates the screen from the support and places the latter on conveyor belt 1 or 2, depending on whether the support is to go underneath or on top of the screen inside the box.
3. The cardboard boxes are also transported by another transversal conveyor belt. Inside the boxes a protective bag and the screen support (according to the model) have already been placed by hand.
4. At the same time, the handling clamp picks up the screen and by means of a Cartesian axis movement it places the screen inside the box, which has previously been placed in the exact working position. The box-handling mechanism incorporates the necessary elements to perform the operation delicately, avoiding the risk of damaging the screens, and with the necessary safety measures to prevent falls of loads.
5. Once the screen has been placed inside the box, the box is taken from the portal to a manual handling station, where an operative adds the support (according to the model), the remote control, the instruction manual and the protective packaging. Then the box is transported to the sealing station.

Packing stations provide the following advantages:

-        Substitution of manual operations, thus eliminating repetition of non-ergonomic movements.

-        Flexibility of units for handling different formats.

-        Fully automatic adjustments.

-        Easy-to-use touch-screen interface.

-        They are modular and can be integrated into the production line. Thanks to their low noise level, they do not need to be located apart.

-        They can be designed and manufactured to the customer’s specific requirements.

-        They blend in with the appearance of the rest of the production line.

These packing stations have been designed to perform a complete production cycle every 42 seconds, that is, around 85 screens per hour.