Aerospace Fastener Cross Slotter
An aerospace fastener manufacturer required an automated process for cross-slotting special fasteners that were incompatible with the company’s standard CNC lathe. Further complicating the process, there were a variety of sizes that were typically processed in small quantities. Creative Automation designed and fabricated a six-station dial-type machine with which the operator’s main task is simply to load components, while the remainder of the process, including unloading, are automated.
Telephone Cable Splice Box Gasket Slitter
Creative Automation designed and manufactured a special lathe and carbide slicing knife system to automate cutting operations for a supplier of telephone connection devices. Our automatic slitter precisely cuts into solid blocks of rubber, slicing specifically-sized rubber grommets by removing a sufficient number of rings to match the required cable diameter. The production process is thus streamlined for both speed and consistency, while also being much easier and safer for the machine operators.
Hermetic Seal Tab Form, Punch and Place Station
A diagnostic tests manufacturer required a station for forming, die cutting and placing a proprietary seal on a test strip. The station needed a small profile to allow integration into a larger assembly system. Creative Automation designed and fabricated a special reel-to-reel tooling system that operated “on demand” and is capable of forming, punching, and precision placing tabs at rates of up to 30/minute.
Ribbon Former
A manufacturer of transducers required a small system to precisely form foil strips of material for use in their product. Creative Automation designed and fabricated a special tool to perform this delicate operation.
Tube Forming System
A manufacturer of swimming pool heaters had a unique requirement to form finned copper tubing for use in a heat exchanger. In addition to forming, the copper finned areas and ends of the tube could not be distorted. Creative Automation designed and fabricated a special multi-axis hydraulic forming system to automatically perform the complex operation.
Spiral Tube Winding and Welding System
A manufacturer of high-pressure hydraulic filters needed to improve the process for manufacturing center cores. The current process was to start with welded tubing and drill a large pattern of holes to permit flow into the center of the tube. After the drilling operation the I.D. of the tube required honing to remove any chips created by the drilling operation.
Programmable PSA Tape Precision Slicer
A supplier of pressure sensitive tape had a requirement for a system to slice widths of tape from a master 48 inch “log” to meet their customers’ specific requirements. The system required flexibility and rapid changeover: up to 50 orders were processed daily, and the supplier provided rolls in quantities from 1 to 500.
Creative Automation designed and manufactured a fully automatic computer-controlled automatic tape slicer. As each roll is sliced, a separator directs the sliced roll to a receiving point at the end of the mandrel.
Large Spring Setting and Gauging System
A manufacturer of large springs (typically 3″ in diameter and 28″ long) required a system for setting the springs compression length while automatically validating the springs rate and set length.
Creative Automation designed and fabricated a system that receives springs placed by an operator on the system’s flight conveyor. Once in position, a servo-controlled hydraulic ram engages the spring and compresses it past its elastic limit to a programmed set position. While the ram withdraws, the spring force is continuously monitored resulting in a force/displacement recording. The resulting data was used to certify each spring and provide a statistical database.
Automatic Transfer Mold System
A safety products company needed a means of attaching tie points onto elastic bands to hold respirator masks. While the elastic material was readily available, their present method of cutting strips and manually attaching molded ends was labor intensive. Creative Automation designed and fabricated a process to precisely feed and index the elastic band through an automatic molding machine.
Special Web Processing and Coating System
A manufacturer of specialized sensors required a process to apply a uniform coating thickness onto a specialized foil web. Further, the entire process needed to be performed in a hard vacuum environment. Creative Automation designed and manufactured a 4-station web coating system. The entire reel-to-reel system was built onto a platform that was integrated into a vacuum chamber.