Tucked away on the east side of Cincinnati, Ohio, Vi-Cas Manufacturing has been making vacuum cups for more than 50 years. While they may fly under the radar to some, vacuum cups are used in nearly every industry. Vi-Cas is the number one seller of vacuum cups, with customers around the world.
“Vacuum cups, as small and innocuous as they may seem, they’re used in everything from contact lenses to airplane wings,” says Johnny Cole, plant manager.
Vi-Cas handles the entire manufacturing process, from raw materials to the finished product. That process begins in their machine shop, where four Hurco VM10(i) machines cut parts.
“We onsite machine all of our fittings that go in all of our cups,” Cole explains. “After the machining is made, our parts go into production.”
With so many companies in need of vacuum cups, Vi-Cas is always exploring ways to shorten lead times and serve more customers. Automation stood out as an intriguing option, but it needed to be easy to implement, simple to operate, and reliable. ProCobots – Hurco’s automation solution – checks all those boxes.
Integrated automation
ProCobots automation is completely integrated with the Hurco control through Automation Job Manager software. This allows the user to manage the collaborative robot (cobot) conversationally on the Hurco control, rather than having to learn robot programming – if you can use a Hurco, you can use ProCobots automation. This key advantage gave Vi-Cas confidence they could quickly incorporate automation into their process and was a major factor in their decision to purchase the ProCobots ProFeeder system. The technology didn’t disappoint.
“When the ProCobots first showed up on site, it was a Thursday if I’m not mistaken. By Friday they were able to have the machine running, and the following week my employees were already programming and learning the machine,” Cole recalls.
ProCobots’ integrated control system squashed the learning curve for Vi-Cas’ machinists and enabled them to automate jobs effectively within days of the cobot’s arrival.
“Pretty easy once you’ve got your dimensions and what your loads are and your grid,” explains machinist Derrick Cooke. “And we go ahead and save that job setup, and it’s also got the location of the vise, retrieves it from the vise. Doing the two-op (operation) with the flipper. This part here is the same part (with a) different hole mounting. All we have to do is change the programs we’re running.”
The part flipper is an optional accessory allowing for multiple-operation machining without machinist intervention. When it’s time for the next operation, the ProCobots’ automatic doors open and the cobot picks up the part from the vise and places it in the flipper. The flipper then turns the part over, and the cobot puts it back in the vise so the Hurco can cut the other side.
The ProCobots system was strongly embraced by the Vi-Cas team, which was excited to hand off the mundane task of loading and unloading parts.
“It really just saves time from a person having to stand there and load and unload the machine all day long,” says machinist Jeremy Bertsch. “It allows the person to go do something else.”
“In machining, the thought processes are that only a person can do X or Y or Z. What they came to find out was the machine wasn’t here to replace them, the machine was here to complement their abilities,” Cole elaborates. “Now they can set up a machine to run a thousand parts and they would spend three or four days standing in front of a machine working. Now they can set it up to go, it’ll run, and within days I’ll have a thousand parts while that employee was able to accomplish whatever goals they needed.”
Additionally, by automating their jobs, Vi-Cas further increased their productivity through lights-out machining. After employees clock out, jobs run overnight, and the team shows up the next morning to a batch of finished parts.
“It’s a non-stop process,” Bertsch notes.
Increased efficiency, productivity
Vi-Cas is pleased with their decision to take the leap toward automation. Incorporating it into their workflow was simple, and the team raves about how ProCobots has increased their efficiency and productivity.
“It’s exceeded all my expectations tenfold,” Cole says. “The gain that I get in time and material is twice what the cost of the machine was. Efficiency is the key to production. It has just astoundingly made the processes more efficient. I can’t say enough about that, how well it has behaved and how much time it has saved me just in production and man hours of doing something. It’s amazing to me how simple it was and how productive it actually is for the coming generations.”
ProCobots has been so helpful that Vi-Cas management intends to purchase more robots to pair with their other Hurco machines.
“It’s been such a success. I do plan on adding more later because it gives my employees so much time to do the other requirements that can’t be done by a robot,” Cole says. “It just does its job, and it does its job very well.”
“Any company needs to look for ways to improve – faster, better, more efficient ways to do things – and I think that’s what we found here,” Bertsch concludes. “It just saves time. You can’t measure it, to be honest. This is a lot faster and better.”
Hurco Companies Inc.
https://www.hurco.com
ProCobots
https://procobots.com
Vi-Cas Manufacturing
https://vi-cas.com
NEWS AND PRODUCTS
Flexible automated loading solution
The Robot Compact 150 offers flexible loading of up to two production machines of any technology from milling to electrical discharge machining (EDM). It has a footprint of 4.7m2, a transfer weight up to 150kg, and a large magazine capacity with X-axis travel of 1,458mm. The system includes options such as a pull-out magazine for direct loading and unloading of the workpiece carriers, featuring a chip identification system and presence sensor so the operator always has a quick overview of the loading of all magazine locations, increasing process reliability and efficiency.
Another optional feature is an ergonomic loading station for setup of large, heavy workpieces. An indexing system locks the pallet automatically when it engages and ensures pallets don’t end up misaligned in the magazine. Magazine levels can be individually adjusted depending on the workpiece size, enabling flexible, efficient use of available space. The Robot Compact 150 is capable of handling workpieces from 70mm x 70mm electrode holders to large MTS 400 pallets and part heights up to 400mm.
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