Gas Tank De-Flashing

Challenge
This plant manufactures a variety of blow molded gas tanks. Manual removal of the flash is labor intensive and creates repetitive motion injuries. Traditional trim dies cannot account for part shrinkage. To remain competitive and improve safety, an agile, automated method of flash removal was required.

Solution
A flash removal tool is mounted to the wrist of a 6-axis robot. The robot is able to deflash and trim the part to the desired quality despite the size variations.

Key Features

• Eliminates operator injuries associated with manual trimming
• Rapid changeover between a wide variety of part shapes
• Contoured knife or rotary cutter attached to a compliance device accommodates part size variation
• Cutter force is adjustable by the robot on the fly
• Only one pass is required on most surface finishes
• Parts trimmed while hot to eliminate staging