Cable Connection System

Called the Autocoupler and made by Technitron (Cincinnati), this system offers unmanned cable connection of rotary tables in pallet pools to various cellular manufacturers. It's a smaller version of the company's continuous cable management technology.

The older system offered by the company was limited to large HMC applications (about 800-mm pallets and up), but the Autocoupler can be used on 400 mm and larger pallet applications.

In a conventional system, when one or two HMCs are served by a pallet pool with fifth or sixth-axis rotary tables, the operator manually connects the rotary table. When a pallet with a rotary table cycles into one of the HMCs, the operator climbs into the machine and connects cables from the machine tool to the rotary table. Next, the operator cycles the machine.

After the machining process is complete, the operator climbs into the HMC and disconnects the table from the machine tool, carefully storing the cables in the machine so they remain dry and free of chips.

Using the Autocoupler, the cell controller and machine tool connect and disconnect the pallet. One side of the coupler is fixed to the HMC's center post, on the pallet-shuttle door, outside the harsh environment of chips and coolant, and the other side is mounted to the back side of the rotary table. A guide pin on the coupler mounted to the machine tool ensures mating of the Autocoupler's halves as well as the electrical and pneumatic connections between machine tool and rotary table.

The cell controller and the machine tool's PLC communicate so the machine tool knows it is not depending on manual connections. Also, the communications tell the cell controller that it's receiving a pallet equipped with a rotary table and Autocoupler, and the machine tool knows when the pallet has been delivered. After machining, the PLC and cell control communicate, and the pallet disconnects and moves out into the pool.

This system allows optimization of cellular manufacturing when a rotary table is involved, and helps make true lights-out manufacturing possible. Circle 203

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