Backlight conveyors help make Byrne Electrical more efficient

Design World Magazine recently highlighted an application that uses 28 of our AS40 conveyors to help reduce part handling at Byrne Electrical Specialists. The conveyors are in a set of three robotic assembly cells that assemble electrical outlets. 

Nine of the conveyors (three per cell) have backlights installed in their frames, which provide contrast so the vision system can detect properly shaped/spaced parts and orient the robot for pickup. The conveyors stop when the vision system detects parts ready to be picked.

Each of those conveyors is fed from another set of conveyors that run parallel and slightly above the backlight conveyors. They run slower than the backlight conveyors to create separation between the parts. Parts that are stacked or improperly shaped drop onto a third set of conveyors that takes them back to a hopper so they can be run through the system again.

The robot assembles the parts into the front shell and then adds a back plate. Once an outlet passes inspection, it’s placed on a takeaway conveyor that runs through all three cells. Since each cell can be making a different product (color, options, etc.), the conveyor is divided into three lanes so the packaging cell robots know which order a particular outlet goes with.

The system was designed and built by Criterion Manufacturing Solutions. Our local distributor, Industrial Control, worked closely with them on several aspects of the design.