The sprue picker is a small robotic system that removes sprues or completed components from the injection moulding equipment. These tools play an essential role in ensuring accuracy, minimising downtimes, and maintaining a uniform and efficient production process. This blog explores the importance of the sprue pickers in India and their advantages.
What Are Sprue Pickers?
A sprue picker is a pick-and-place robot for plastics, used to clean up injection moulding machines by removing the sprues – leftover plastic channels through which the molten material flows into the mould.
Sprue pickers are typically positioned at the top or side of the machine and utilise pneumatic or servo-driven arms to clamp and remove the sprue immediately after each moulding cycle. Sprue pickers are small and cost-effective as compared to large robotic hands.
Benefits of Using Sprue Pickers
The introduction of industrial robotics for moulding offers multiple advantages to plastic manufacturers. Other notable advantages include:
- Less Cycle Time: Automated sprue removal reduces the moulding cycle, increasing the speed of production.
- Improved Safety: Employees are not exposed to the moving components of the injection moulding machine, which minimises the risk of injuries.
- Increased Productivity: Automation reduces downtimes between cycles, optimising the output.
- Affordable Automation: Sprue pickers offer a low-cost entry point to automation for factories that are not ready for full-scale automation.
- Improved Quality of the Product: The consistent removal of parts ensures that uniform cooling minimises deformation or contamination.
Top Sprue Pickers in India
Automation solutions in the Indian market have evolved quickly, with brands introducing affordable and energy-efficient models suitable for a wide range of plastic processing units. Some of the top options are:
- Swing Arm Robots: This is one of the common and widely used kinds of sprue pickers. They have a rotating arm that swings out to quickly and efficiently remove any parts or sprues. They are compact and are suitable for small moulding machines.
- Pneumatic Sprue Pickers: These lightweight and economical options are operated using compressed air and are suitable for repetitive and small-scale production.
- Servo-Driven Sprue Pickers: Offering greater precision and flexibility, servo-driven models allow programmable movements for more complex moulding operations.
- Dual-Arm Sprue Pickers: These are designed to work on larger machines, and they have two arms that can perform several removal tasks simultaneously to increase throughput.
Delta Stark’s Sprue Pickers: Features & Advantages
Our best sprue pickers are performance-oriented and straightforward. The major characteristics that differentiate the best pick and place robots for plastics are:
- Programmable Control Systems: They can be simply adjusted according to the moulding cycles and production requirements.
- Energy Efficiency: Our new units use less energy, making them affordable in the long run.
- Fit-in Design: The space-saving designs can be installed even in smaller factory spaces.
- Durability and Low Maintenance: It is designed to resist the high-heat conditions of injection moulding units because of its corrosion-resistant materials.
- Quick Response Time: Enhances production efficiency by perfectly matching the moulding cycle.
How Sprue Pickers Improve Injection Moulding Efficiency
Another important factor in injection moulding is efficiency, which focuses on the reduction of cycle time while maintaining the quality of output. Moulding robotics in industry, such as sprue pickers, prevents delays in manual operations by automatically removing sprues immediately after moulding.
The conveyor systems can also be fitted with these robots to transfer the sprues or parts for recycling or delivery in packages. This integrated automation minimises manual handling, reduces waste, and ensures optimum utilisation of manpower.
Choosing the Right Sprue Picker for Your Factory
The choice of sprue picker is determined by various factors such as the tonnage of the injection moulding machine, volume of production, and budget. Always remember that the sprue picker you buy must fit your existing moulding machine and should be easily serviced in your area. By consulting our automation specialists, you can find the most suitable solution to your production needs.
Conclusion
Sprue pickers are a medium between manual labour and full automation. With swing arm robots and other sophisticated servo-powered versions, the sprue pickers in India have something to suit every manufacturing size. Adding industrial robotics to moulding not only increases efficiency but also results in safer, cleaner and more consistent production procedures.