Shops that bar feed CNC lathes now can safely collect finished parts and gain hours of highly profitable, unmanned production through the Rota-Rack system from Royal Products.
The compact system is designed to allow shops to run second or third shifts with the same equipment and without having to add employees. Also, day-shift operators are freed to handle other more-productive tasks.
The Rota-Rack is engineered to eliminate workpiece damage and associated scrap and rework costs. This is especially beneficial when parts with delicate external features such as threads, edges and corners are run. In addition, the system keeps parts in sequential order for quality control tracking.
Each time the Rota-Rack collects a finished part, its turntable indexes to the next position to ensure that the following part will not collide with previously collected parts. A spiral keeps the parts in sequential order. All contact surfaces of the system and its conveyor are covered with a high-lubricity ultra-high-molecular weight polyethylene plastic that minimizes friction and protects part surface finishes.
Setup and operation of the system is simple. Users enter the part cycle time and degree of turntable rotation via a simple PLC controller. The system does not have to be hooked up to the intended lathe’s CNC. A counter also can be set to shut the Rota-Rack down after a specified number of parts have been collected.
As finished parts exit the lathe, they drop onto the Rota-Rack’s conveyor that moves them to the system’s turntable. The spiral guides the parts toward the center of the turntable. The degree of turntable rotation can be adjusted for part length, and after hours of unmanned operation, shops can remove parts from the center of the system by hand.
Rota-Rack is designed to accommodate a variety of part lengths, diameters and shapes. As a general rule, the standard Rota-Rack is designed for parts that range in size from 0.250 in. in diameter by 1-in. long to 3 in. in diameter and 10-in. long. A slight spiral modification is required to handle longer parts.