About Sailor Robot

The Sailor Pen, was established in 1911 to produce fountain pens.
In the past, we needed one operator for each Injection Molder Machine to take-out the plastic parts for the pen.

In 1967, we launched the development for automatic extraction for products from injection molding process, to improve the productivity.

1969, an experimental #RX-0 robot was completed.
Next 1970, we displayed and presented our robots at the third Japan Plastic Trade Fair.
That was the beginning of the Sailor Robotic Division, and thus the robotic business began.

We studied and developed a high quality engineering technology to meet the customers’ demands. Completed design and manufacture of assembly and inspection systems for the process after injection parts taken-out.

“Sailor defines Technology”. With our machinery design / controlling technology, additional capability of chemical and metalwork technology accumulated from writing tools manufacturing. Sailor contributed its technology to improve the quality and predictability in numerous of fields, including medical tools, food containers, multi media of CD, MD, DVD etc.

Take-out Robot for Injection Molding Machine
Factory Automation

The robots installed on plastic injection molding machine and take out products and runner (resin pass-way) automatically.

“Injection molding” is one of popular methods to produce a plastic product.
Hot and liquidized plastic material is ‘injected’ into a metal mold, then solidified by chilling to produce the solid plastic parts.

Injection molding machine produces plastic parts automatically and continuously,and the take-out robot respond on taking out the completed parts or runners from the mold automatically, without the need of human intervention.

To minimize the cost, the molding machine normally operates 24-7.
Operators were used to take 3-shift to handle molding parts and runners.
The job was dull, boring, hard and also very dangerous.
There, automatic take-out robots were born to release operators from these hard work. One take-out robot replaced more than three operators and contributed to reduce the cost as well.

Nowadays almost all molding machines have take-out robot on top.

What can be done with Take-out Robot

Automatic Take-out Product and Runner from Mold

One operator can manage 5 to 20 machines, depending on the product.

Palletizing

Place the product in lines or stack in a box, etc.
Palletizing makes following process very easy.
Gate Cut

Separate product and runner automatically with specialized cutting unit.

Assembling and Processing

Take-out robot can make some process during the parts are still hot right after molding. It includes bending, adjusting parts.
Insert Molding

Take-out robot can also insert work like label or nut, not just taking out.

Automation Product Line

Starting from injection molding machine, take-out robot can directly pass the product to assemble, inspection, packing machine.
It will reduce the contamination from human. This kind of clean system is popular for medical, food and precision instrument production.

Variety of Take-Out Robot

Traverse Robot (RZ type)

Take-out product and runner by moving its arm(s) up-down, left-right and front-back directions.
This movement does not change the direction of EOAT (End of arm tool) and is suitable for fine position adjustment.
There are two types of traverse robot, single vertical axis and double vertical axes depending on the mold the robot applied for.

Swing Type (RX type)

This type of take-out robot has vertical, horizontal air cylinders and swing pivot.
It can be reasonable price with a small dimension to take up space.

Other Types

Take-out Robot for CD’s and Side Entry Robot are both the robot to take out the product from the side of the mold.
These operate very quick with minimized stroke of the movement.

Words

Telescopic Vertical Arm: In order to use in a room with low ceiling, vertical arm can be multi-layered (telescoped).

Anti-Vibration Control: Servo motor cancels the vibration of the arm with active vibration control.
This system reduces the cycle time of the injection molding production.
Less takeout time = Faster Cycle time = Increased Production

Multi Function Palletizing: Placing the product in various ways after taking out from mold.
Not just simply placing in line, but it can also stack, place in between, push sideways after placing or placing with different direction etc..

Gate Cut at Traverse End: Separate the product and runner with cutting unit placed at the end of traverse axis.

Take-out with Under Cut: In order to pull out the product from the mold with under cut, the take-out robot can move various ways inside mold, not limited to simply pulling back.

Optimized Motion: The arm can move with the curved path to reduce the cycle.

Save Operation: In order to save the energy, the take-out robot automatically reduces its speed to return to the home position if the cycle time is long enough.

Servo Off While Waiting: Vertical servo motor is automatically shuts off during waiting for the next movement while it consume energy if the power is ON.

Production Control: Execute product quantity control, sampling operation automatically.
It also has functions to set sampling interval, sampling number, sampling position, etc..

Automatic Setting: Setting delay timers for take-out automatically.

There are many processes to complete a product such as injection molding, assembly,
inspection, packing, boxing,…
Factory Automation (FA) System replaces all or part of these processes
by automated system to improve cleanliness, stability of manufacture,
to expand capacity, increase speed and to reduce production cost.

Sailor FA system is designed by our experienced designers and engineers while maintaining close communication with the customer. The completed system is fully custom for you with all requested functions and usability.

Variety of the FA system

Insert Work Preparation

Prepare the insert work such as the in-mold label or nut for insert machine.

Parts Assembly

Assemble several parts together automatically. This type of system can be directly connected with injection molding and take-out robot.
Product / Parts Inspection

Inspect and check any fault by vision sensor, pressure sensor etc. to reject the parts in the following section of the system.

Box Changer / Stocker

Prepare a empty box for boxing and keep filled box until collection.
It lengthens the time interval between collecting the boxes.
Other Special Processes

Laser marking, sticker placement, sealing package,…etc.

Semi-Automated System

In certain cases, worker and machine work together for small lot product or complicated process. Safety devices are placed for man-machine co-work.

Types of Automation System

Pre-Molding Process

Placing insert parts such as film label or nut into the mold before the plastic molding process.

Post-Molding Processes

After taking-out the product from the injection molding machine, the automation system assembles the parts, inspect, pack, and box.

Independent System

Apart from the injection molding process, independent system can assemble the parts, inspect the product, etc.. The machine can also manage other material like metal, paper and even liquid.

Words

Visual Inspection: Detect mal-molding or contamination using a camera and analyze with computer to reject the defective product.

PLC: Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) is also called sequence controller and popular control system for automation. PLC has advantage to test the program.

Photo-electronic Sensor: Automation system has many photoelectric sensor with optical fiber to detect parts or arm of machine. It checks if the laser is obstructed by any object.

Bowl Feeder: Bowl feeder is a device to feed the parts one by one, continuously with their direction arranged using vibration.
Sometimes used with linear feeder and hopper.

Defect Parts Rejection: Reject the parts with any defect for recycle or disposal.

Ball Screw: A mechanism to change motor rotation to linear motion.