Author Archives: Orange Digital

 

Redback™ Drilling Tools & Manufacturing has taken great strides in bringing their manufacturing capabilities into the latest generation. The company has acquired a broad range of new equipment from some of the best equipment manufacturers across the world to modernise their facility and produce higher product volumes. These machines include modern CNC lathes, mills, robots, and saws, from leading manufacturers like Do-All, DMG-Mori and Mazak.

On top of the acquisition of new machines, the Australian based manufacturer has invested heavily into the reorganisation of the workshop to make production lines smoother and more efficient. The move to modernise the facility is to address the demand for Redback™ products set to increase in the coming years.

For more information about the manufacturing facility and Redback™ products please contact us.

 

 

With the advent of more advanced machines into the South Australian workshop, an increasing number of Redback™ products are being made through automated processes. These processes are beyond the standard CNC machining as they encompass the use of two high tech robots acquired by SGS-Gearhart early to mid last year to assist with Redback™ component production. Each robot serves a different purpose so this article will be focused on the first of the two machines, the carbide insertion robot cell.

In early 2018, the carbide insertion robot cell was designed and delivered to Redback™ Drilling Tools & Manufacturing in Adelaide by an Australian industrial equipment supplier. The two manipulator robotic cell was custom designed and built with the intention of reducing the amount of manual labour needed to insert carbide into roller reamer redress kit components. Carbide insertion is a slow, precise and highly repetitive task which is why it was a perfect use case for the robotic arms.

The robot cell consist of two independent manipulators, a small manipulator for picking up and holding tungsten carbide and a large arm that loads parts for carbide insertion. These two manipulators work in tandem to align the carbide pieces to the holes of the parts ready for pressing by use of an automatic press. Control of the machines is achieved through the use of a programming computer installed onto the exterior of the cell. This allows for changes to be made when required and new work cycles to be loaded when necessary.

Since the acquisition of the carbide insertion robot cell, the machine has been optimised to press in carbide at a rate equal to that of previous manual operations. The machine works accurately, and continuously for a long period of time until halted by an operator or a work cycle has been completed. This has increased the amount of available work force to tend to other components of the Redback™ Roller Reamers.

For more information about the manufacturing facility and Redback™ products please contact us.

 

Redback™ Drilling Tools & Manufacturing has made a great leap toward automation of Redback™ parts production. They have acquired, tested and successfully integrated an automated machining centre that takes in raw material and returns finished products. The automated system has been designed by a Japanese manufacturer and uses a specialised robotic control arm to feed material into a High-Precision, High-Efficiency Integrated Mill Turn Center.

Unlike the carbide insertion robot which finishes a product off, the automated system starts with a batch of cut raw material from the saw. The material is loaded into a materials bay by operators and a production cycle is selected in the pre-programmed mill and turning centre. From here, the arm loads the raw material which can be as heavy as 28kg into the milling and turning centre for a machining. From the start to finish, the machining process requires no additional operator input leaving the operator to tend to other tasks. At the end of this, the robot arm unloads finished part and starts on the next part. This process continues as long as the machine is fed batches of raw material by operators when stock gets low and there are no errors.

Both the machines sit on top of a 600mm thick high density concrete slab with double mesh reinforcement to provide high levels of stability and vibration reduction. Currently, the automated system is producing Roller Reamer components of various sizes and has proven itself to be precise and accurate in full production mode. Moving forward, the manufacturer looks to further automate processes to remain competitive in the world of high tech and high precision machining.

For more information about the manufacturing facility and Redback™ products please contact us.