My latest work project.

[YoDoug]

We actually started working on this about a year ago. It was supposed to be built in our FL facility, then we delayed it and ended up moving the machine and robot to MN. Doing final testing and debugging this week.

Okuma M560V, ABB robot, 100 24"*14" pallets and two operator load stations.

[Jeff]

That's badass!
How many bottles of Excedrine did you go through getting that all set up and the kinks worked out?

[neurosis]

How many celery and carrot sticks? 

[YoDoug]

That's badass!
How many bottles of Excedrine did you go through getting that all set up and the kinks worked out?

This is the third pallet loading mill cell I have designed/built here so this one was pretty easy. I have updated/incorporated all the desired improvements that we learned from the other two cells after they were in production for a while.

[Incogneeto]

This is the third pallet loading mill cell I have designed/built here so this one was pretty easy. I have updated/incorporated all the desired improvements that we learned from the other two cells after they were in production for a while.

Where's the coffee cup holder??

[Incogneeto]

Del wants to know if it has "A Vape Station"

[Brad St]

Way kewl Doug, that's gotta be a feeling to design it up like that and then build it.
Great job!

[DUM1]

that's some top-notch lights out free money setup ! impressed

[Zoffen]

Awesome! I hope you have negotiated some pay raises with every successful cell you create. Lots of value add here but that also seems like a dream job.

[TylerBeer]

Very nice! I see there the Okuma M560V has Ethernet/IP - looks like a really nice integration with the robot.
What did the total ~cost run you?

[YoDoug]

Very nice! I see there the Okuma M560V has Ethernet/IP - looks like a really nice integration with the robot.
What did the total ~cost run you?

We don't have Okuma's robot interface. The first VMC here was bought without any options for automation. If you order the autodoor and robot interface when you buy the machine Okuma will give you a good package price. If you go back to orders options for an already installed machine they are insanely expensive. Like $20k+ for those options plus install cost. Because of that we made our own robot interface/autodoor and have since duplicated it on all of our robot loaded Okuma mills. It is a combination of physical 24V wiring into cyclestart/feedhold buttons, AUX M codes, and an app using the Okuma API.

A good estimate for the automation cost (purchased items) would be around $150k. That includes robot, Schunk veroS modules and 500 pull studs, light curtains, cage, pallet rack, etc. My labor is figured as overhead. Add in the machine, accessories, tooling, fixturing, etc. and the total cost is probably around $450k. This gets us between 12-20 hours a day of unattended runtime. One operator can do daily maintenance and load enough pallets for 24 hours of production in about 4-5 hours time. We typically have one operator per 2 robot/machine cells. In a 10 hour day they can keep both machines running 24 hours. We get about 65%-75% incyle time in VMC and about 85%-90% in Horizontal/Fastems cells based on a 8720 hour year. 

[neurosis]

. My labor is figured as overhead. Add in the machine, accessories, tooling, fixturing, etc. and the total cost is probably around $450k.

That entire setup was only $450k? 

[Newbeeee™]

Kudos Douglas!

[JParis]

That is an excellent layout Doug...

If I told you what they were trying to do in these parts, you'd laugh your ass off...

I stated yesterday, I really hope it doesn't fail as it will be be VERY expensive but I don't have a lot of hope it's going to work as they think it is...

[YoDoug]

That entire setup was only $450k? 

Without going through every bill/invoice, I would feel safe at that estimate. We also have three Okuma horizontals with Fastems FMS systems. 1 has 24 pallets and the other two each have 16 pallets. For an Okuma Hori plus fastems, tombstones, tooling, etc. we spend about $1M each. We figured we can build 2 VMC cells for the cost of one Hori cell. The trade off though is more tools in the Hori and better chip management. Plus the Fastems cell controller software is more robust than my homebrew cell control software.