The rails were assembled according to the following process:
1. laying out several rails on a table
2. inserting the mushroom sliders by hand
3. hammering in the mushroom sliders with a hammer
4. packing the rails into a cardboard box.

Starting point

In order to achieve a better productivity of the employee used, he should be supported by the automatic press-in machine. One challenge, however, is the high diversity of the carcase rails to be fitted. Different positions of the press-fit hole require a high flexibility of the machine. In addition, a cycle time of 4s must be undercut in order to increase the operator's efficiency sufficiently.
The position of the rail relative to the setting spindle can be shifted via handwheels. In addition, the width of the belt conveyor and the associated separating and gripper mechanisms can also be adjusted via a handwheel. Thus, up to 50 different rail types, each with different lengths, can be processed without having to retool the machine. Future rail types can also be loaded on the machine, taking into account a few interfering contours.
In order to achieve the shortest possible cycle time, most of the processes were parallelised. In this way, the specified cycle time could be adhered to and, at the same time, the time-dependent required press-in quality could be achieved.
The operation of the machine was kept as simple as possible. It essentially consists of a start and a stop button. This means that time-consuming training can be avoided. An integrated counter function allows orders to be processed more clearly.

Solution

- Saving resources (steps 2 and 3 from the initial situation are omitted)

- Increased efficiency

- Simplified order processing thanks to counter function

- Quality assurance through 100% parts inspection

Advantages for the customer

To improve the gliding properties of drawer runners, the carcase runners are fitted with mushroom glides. The automatic press-fit machine carries out this process without manual intervention.

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System film

Here the rails are inserted by the operator. A double belt conveyor then transports the rails to the press-in area.

Belt conveyor

A stopper and a retaining mechanism release individual rails from the accumulation section. The belt conveyor brings the parts to an end stop where they are picked up by the transfer handling system.

Stopper and retention mechanism

The transfer handling consists of two parallel running units: The insertion and the ejection handling. It picks up the rails from the separator and places them on the press-in position. At the same time, loaded rails are placed on the belt conveyors from the press-in position.

Transfer handling

The hold-down contains a test plunger. This allows the rails to be fixed in place during the press-fitting process and also checks whether the corresponding hole is hit by the setting spindle. If the test plunger does not hit the hole, the rail either has too large manufacturing tolerances or the wrong rail has been inserted. Furthermore, the test plunger is used to determine whether the mushroom slide remains in the rail after insertion and has thus been inserted correctly. If an error is detected, the rail is marked as NOK on the control panel.

Test plunger

The mushroom gliders are fed via a spiral conveyor. The mushroom gliders are brought into the correct position from the bulk material and separated. The separation causes the mushroom gliders to fall into a feed hose. The mushroom sliders are conveyed through this hose to the setting spindle by means of air flow.

Bowl feeder

The mushroom sliders are pressed into the rails by a pneumatically driven setting spindle. The setting spindle is aligned with the test punch. This means that a mushroom slider can always be inserted when the test plunger hits the locating hole.

Set spindle

Once a rail has been placed back on the belt after pressing, the belt conveys the finished parts to the ejection chute. There they are collected and can be removed by the operator.

Press-in machine

Automation

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