FIPA Inc. of Cary, N.C., has developed a custom cutting system for automotive injection molder Proper Polymers in a South Carolina molding plant.
FIPA built the system for front and rear wheel arches that Proper molds for an automotive customer. The project needed zero vestige, producing a cutting station that would handle two different-sized arches, and meeting a tight delivery date — even though the gate faces inwards and is concealed in its assembled state, according to FIPA.
“The original partner was unwilling to produce a single cutting station that would handle both parts, therefore less than three weeks after the project started, Proper Polymers was left empty-handed and had to look elsewhere,” FIPA said in a news release.
FIPA took over. The solution: A rotating mounted dual cutting station, which processes two wheel arches in parallel. When changing production from front to rear wheel arch, the tool is changed and the cutting station indexed 180 degrees. A robot picks up two wheel arches from the injection press and inserts them into the cutting station.
FIPA air nippers remove the gates with no remaining gate vestige. Then, the robot takes the wheel arches and runners out of the cutting station and puts them on a conveyor.
FIPA Inc. was founded in 2006 as a fully owned subsidiary of FIPA GmbH of Ismaning, Germany,
Tel. 011 49-89-962-4890, email [email protected].