What are the advantages of installing injection molding manipulator in plastic toy factory?

In the injection production process of plastic toy factory (the core process is "injection molding → taking parts → deburring → detection/transfer"), installing injection manipulator can solve the pain points of traditional manual operation from five dimensions: production efficiency, product quality, cost control, safety management and flexible production, and become the core equipment for automatic upgrading of toy industry. Its specific benefits are as follows:

First, improve production efficiency: break through the "artificial efficiency bottleneck" and realize 24-hour continuous production.

Injection molding of plastic toys has the characteristics of "large batch and repeated procedures (such as taking parts and placing inserts after each injection)", and manual operation is easily subject to fatigue and speed limitation, while the manipulator can improve the productivity from three aspects: "speed, continuity and connection efficiency":

The operation speed is faster, and the production cycle is shortened. The picking and placing actions of the injection molding manipulator can be accurately controlled at 0.5-2 seconds/time (adjusted according to the size of toys, such as the picking time of small toys is less than or equal to 1 second), which is much faster than manual work (manual picking takes 3-5 seconds/time, and the mold needs to be opened and closed stably). Take toys with a single injection cycle of 20 seconds (such as building blocks and small dolls) as an example, the manipulator can compress the connection time of "injection-taking" to the extreme, and the daily average production capacity of a single injection molding machine can be increased by 15%-30% (the manual needs to rest and change shifts, and the manipulator can run continuously).

To realize "unmanned continuous production" and break through the time limit, traditional manual production depends on "two shifts/three shifts", and there are interruptions such as "eating, resting and asking for leave", and the manipulator can cooperate with "automatic feeding system and mold temperature control system" to realize 24-hour uninterrupted production (just regular inspection). For example, a toy factory produces "plastic puzzles", with an average daily production capacity of 5,000 sets. After the introduction of robots, the average daily production capacity has increased to 7,000 sets, and it can continue to produce in the "unmanned workshop" at night, greatly shortening the order delivery cycle.

The manipulator can integrate the function of "multi-process linkage" to reduce the waiting time of process connection and improve the process efficiency: besides the core "injection picking", it can also complete "insert placement" (such as metal hooks and plastic accessories in toys), "preliminary deburring" (through its own shearing mechanism) and "product transfer to the next process" (such as sending to the inspection table and conveyor belt) synchronously, without manual handling between processes. For example, when producing plastic toys with lanyards, the manipulator can directly embed the lanyards into the products after picking up the pieces, which saves 1-2 seconds per piece of manual inserts and improves the process efficiency by 10%.

Second, ensure product quality: reduce "manual intervention error" and improve consistency and qualified rate.

Plastic toys have strict requirements on "appearance (no scratches, no flash) and dimensional accuracy (such as the matching degree of buttons of spliced toys)", and manual operation is prone to quality fluctuation due to "different techniques and fatigue negligence", while the manipulator can achieve quality stability through "precise control";

The action of taking parts is accurate, so as to avoid product damage. When taking parts manually, if the hand touches the high-temperature area of the mold (the temperature of the injection mold is usually 150-250℃), it is easy to cause "product scratch and deformation" due to hand shaking and uneven strength (such as the soft plastic toy being pinched flat); The manipulator controls the strength (error ≤0.1N) and position (positioning accuracy ≤0.05mm) of the parts by "servo motor+precision sensor", which can stably grab the products and avoid collision with molds and equipment, and the appearance damage rate of the products is reduced from 3%-5% of manual work to below 0.5%.

Plastic toys (especially infant toys) to reduce manual contact pollution and improve cleanliness should meet the "hygienic standards" (such as EU EN 71 and China GB 6675), and "cleaning procedures" should be added when the products are easily contaminated by grease, sweat and hair on the hands when picking up the parts manually; The manipulator adopts "food-grade/medical-grade plastic or stainless steel gripper", and can be disinfected regularly to avoid man-made pollution, reduce the subsequent cleaning cost and reduce the "rework rate caused by pollution".

The dimensional accuracy is stable, and the consistency of the product is improved. When the insert is manually placed and the mold is adjusted, it is easy to appear "the position deviation of the insert" (such as the misplacement of the toy eyes) and "the product is cooled and deformed due to the untimely taking of the parts" (the product needs to be demoulded quickly after injection, and it may be deformed after a manual delay of 1-2 seconds); The manipulator can ensure that the position deviation of each insert is ≤0.1mm, and the error of picking time is ≤0.2 seconds through "programming fixed action parameters", and the product size qualification rate is increased from 95% of manual work to over 99%, which is especially suitable for the high-precision production of "spliced toys" (such as Lego bricks).

Third, reduce the comprehensive cost: from the "manpower, materials, management" multi-dimensional compression of expenses.

The profit margin of plastic toy industry is greatly influenced by "raw material price and labor cost", and the manipulator can realize long-term cost saving by "replacing labor, reducing waste and optimizing management";

Replacing labor, reducing labor cost and management cost. An injection molding manipulator can replace 1-2 people (in traditional production, an injection molding machine needs one worker to pick up the parts full-time, and if an insert is needed, two people need to cooperate). The payback period of a single manipulator (with an average price of 100,000-200,000 yuan) is usually 1-2 years (some high-capacity production lines can be shortened to 8 months), and there is no need to bear hidden costs such as "social security, overtime and annual leave"; At the same time, after reducing labor, enterprises can reduce the workload of "personnel recruitment, training, attendance management" and reduce management costs by 15%-20%.

Reduce the waste of materials, reduce the loss of raw materials. Manual operation is easy to cause material waste due to "picking mistakes" (such as product falling and failure to pick up parts in time, which leads to mold overflow) and "excessive burrs" (manual deburring is not complete and needs to be scrapped or secondary treatment); The success rate of the manipulator is close to 100%, and the mold overflow can be reduced by "accurately controlling the demoulding time". At the same time, the efficiency of preliminary deburring is higher, and the loss rate of raw materials is reduced from 5%-8% of manual work to 2%-3%. Based on the calculation of "10,000 yuan per ton of plastic raw materials", a factory consumes 100 tons of raw materials every month, and the cost of raw materials can be saved by 3,000-5,000 yuan every month after introducing the manipulator.

Prolong the service life of the equipment and reduce the maintenance cost. In manual operation, if it is mishandled (such as reaching for the part without closing the mold and not cleaning the mold residue after taking the part), it is easy to cause the mold of the injection molding machine to be damaged (the unit price of the mold is usually tens of thousands of yuan); Through the "sensor linkage protection" (such as not taking the parts when the mold is not tightly closed, and automatically cleaning the mold surface after taking the parts), the manipulator can reduce the abnormal wear of the mold, prolong the service life of the mold by 20%-30%, and reduce the downtime rate of the injection molding machine caused by manual misoperation (from 5%-8% to 1%-2%).

Fourth, ensure production safety: avoid "high-risk link risks" and reduce safety accidents.

In the injection molding production of plastic toys, "high-temperature molds, high-speed opening and closing equipment parts and mechanical extrusion" are the main safety hazards, and manual operation is prone to industrial injuries, while the manipulator can completely isolate high-risk links:

Replacing manual entry into high-risk areas to avoid direct injury to the "pinch risk" (the closing force of the mold can reach several tons) and the "scald risk" (the temperature is above 200℃) of high-temperature molds are common types of industrial injuries in the industry; The manipulator can operate in the "closed equipment area" in the whole process, without manually reaching into the mold cavity, so as to completely eliminate direct work-related injuries such as "pinch injury and scald" and avoid accidents such as "foot injury caused by falling products" when picking up parts manually.

Reduce the safety hazards caused by artificial fatigue. Repeated manual picking for a long time (such as repeating the actions for several times every day) is likely to lead to "inattention" due to fatigue, which will lead to operational errors (such as touching the equipment button by mistake and not paying attention to the equipment warning); The manipulator can maintain stable movement accuracy, is not affected by fatigue, and has "emergency stop linkage function" (such as stopping immediately when abnormality is detected), further reducing the safety risk.

Comply with the safety production norms and reduce the risk of corporate responsibility. With the strict implementation of the "Safety Production Law" and other laws and regulations, enterprises have to bear "medical compensation, administrative punishment and reputation loss" if there is an industrial accident; After the introduction of the manipulator, the accident rate of production safety has been greatly reduced, which can help enterprises avoid relevant legal risks and economic losses, and at the same time enhance employees' trust in the enterprise (reduce the brain drain caused by "worrying about safety").

Fifth, enhance the flexible production capacity: quickly adapt to the demand of "many kinds of toys and quick update"

The plastic toy industry has the characteristics of "multiple categories (such as dolls, building blocks and educational toys) and fast style update (seasonal and festive demand)". Traditional manual production needs to "retrain employees and adjust the operation process", while the manipulator can realize flexible adaptation through "rapid programming and model change";

Switching products quickly and shortening the time of changing production, the action parameters (picking position, strength and speed) of the manipulator can be quickly modified by "programming software" (skilled technicians can complete the parameter setting of a new product in only 10-30 minutes), without having to "re-familiarize themselves with the product structure and practice the operation method" like manual work. For example, a factory needs to switch to "New Year Toys" after producing "Christmas Toys", and it takes 2-3 hours (including training and trial production) to manually change production, and it only takes 30 minutes for the manipulator to change production, which improves the production efficiency by more than 80%, and can quickly respond to the market demand of "short orders and multiple batches".

Adapting to multi-specification products, the universal manipulator of lifting equipment can be matched with "replaceable gripper" (such as sucker gripper for small toys and gripper for large toys), and plastic toys with different sizes and shapes (such as switching from "plastic ball with a diameter of 5cm" to "doll body with a diameter of 30cm") can be adapted by quickly replacing gripper, so it is not necessary to configure equipment separately for each product, and the "replaceable gripper" of injection molding machine and manipulator can be improved.

The modern injection molding manipulator can be connected to "MES system (production execution system)" to collect data such as "production quantity, product qualification rate and equipment running status" in real time. Enterprises can monitor "the fluctuation of production capacity and quality of various toys" through the data, quickly adjust the production plan (for example, when the sales of a toy surge, the manipulator parameters can be optimized through the data to further improve the production capacity), and realize "fixing production by sales".

summary

The essence of installing injection manipulator in plastic toy factory is to solve the core pain points of "low efficiency, large quality fluctuation, high cost, high safety risk and poor flexibility" in traditional production through "automation technology", especially to adapt to the characteristics of "mass production+multi-category switching" in toy industry. With the increasing demand for "toy quality and delivery speed" in the consumer market and the rising labor cost, the injection manipulator has changed from "optional equipment" to "just-needed equipment", which can not only help enterprises improve their short-term productivity and profits, but also enhance their long-term market competitiveness (such as responding to orders quickly and ensuring product compliance), which is a key step for the plastic toy industry to transform into "intelligent and efficient".