NIS Ltd

The previous process for making the holes used a conventional drilling head attached to a robot. Using this method the material had to be located and supported underneath by pillars to stabilise the surface whilst being drilled. This presented problems with the increasing variety of product shapes. Many types were not able to be located onto the fixture bed, and therefore had to be hand drilled, severely reducing production rates. Also, to increase throughput, two products at a time need to be drilled by the robot. But this resulted in frequently broken drill bits, and the material again having to be drilled by hand.

The innovative solution implemented by NIS was to remove the conventional drilling unit from the head of the robot and fit a high-tech laser drill in its place. Because this method of drilling does not require any complex fixtures, all shapes of product can be easily located onto the machine bed and the process is simplified. The laser drill is also much more reliable and precise, meaning that 2 products can be drilled at once without any problem. These improvements have had huge benefits in dramatically increasing output and improving efficiency by eliminating all manual drilling operations.

Another advantage is that the holes made using the laser are much smaller, therefore less visible on the finished product, and also reducing wastage. The use of a high powered laser unit has also ensured that the system is future-proofed for compatibility with other material thicknesses.

The scope of supply for NIS included; designing the robot end effecter, removing existing equipment and installing the new unit, updating both the PLC and HMI software, and final commissioning of the system.