Sorting parts on a conveyor in a foundry for Stellantis Sept Fons
September 27, 2022
Our customer, the Sept-Fons site of the STELLANTIS group – a foundry specialized in the fabrication of cast iron automotive parts such as cylinder casings for diesel engines and braking parts for the group’s vehicles – needed to locate and sort the parts coming out of the furnace on a conveyor at high temperatures (over 700°C) and in a very hostile environment, full of visual nuisances (sand, dirt, hidden parts, etc.).
We came up with a robust and impervious system – our CUP3D vision solution – composed of three robots and three fixed 3D cirrus conveyor sensors (one close to each robot), virtual reality and artificial intelligence.
The outcome was and integrated solution capable of sorting 1,000 parts per hour in a non-deterministic environment, fluently identifying and sorting them in different bins according to the model.
Challenge
- Locate and sort parts at high temperatures (over 700°C).
- Identify different types of parts despite visual nuisances (sand, dirt, hidden parts, etc.).
- Ability to work in a hostile environment at the furnace exit.
- Ability for the robots to route the parts to the right bins according to the type of part.
- Installation of a robust and impervious system composed of three robots and 3 fixed cirrus conveyor sensors (one close to each robot).
Solution
Outcome
- Fluent identification and sorting of parts.
- Waste and nuisance management on the conveyor.
- Deposit of parts in the different bins according to the model.
- Maintenance of the cycle time of the furnace exits.
- 1000 parts sorted per hour.
