Robot Automation
Cylinder Head Palletizing Robot with Defect Inspection
A FANUC robot reads, inspects, sorts and palletizes cylinder heads, catching hard-to-find defects before they ship.
CLIENT
INDUSTRY
SOLUTION
DURATION
The Challenge
Team members were inspecting heavy cylinder head castings by hand and manually loading them into outbound shipping containers. The work was physically demanding, and certain hard-to-catch defects still made it through to the customer. The goal: take people out of the heavy lifting, catch the target defect in-house, and keep every casting traceable from its serial number to the bin it ships in.
Key Requirements
- Cycle time under 25 seconds
- Stack 30 castings per bin
- Place molded plastic liners (dunnage) accurately
- Inspect every casting for the target defect at 4 points
- Divert defects to an NG conveyor
- Read the 2D code for model and serial number
- Sort into the correct bin by model
- Bind serial number to bin ID for traceability
The ICR Solution
ICR built a FANUC palletizing robot cell: an infeed conveyor positions each cylinder head, and a Keyence SR-2000 reader captures its 2D code for model and serial number. A FANUC R-2000iC robot with a dual-gripper end-of-arm tool picks the casting and presents it to a Keyence vision inspection system, which checks four points for the target defect and returns a good/NG result for each point plus an overall judgment. Good castings are stacked in the correct bin by model, 30 per bin, and the robot’s second gripper places the molded plastic dunnage between layers. NG castings go to a two-zone reject conveyor. The PLC binds each serial number to its bin ID for full traceability, while a safety PLC and Keyence light curtains guard the cell.
Equipment & Technology
- FANUC R-2000iC robot with R-30iB controller
- Dual Schunk grippers: part and dunnage
- Keyence vision inspection system (4 points)
- Keyence SR-2000 2D code reader
- PLC with safety PLC
- Touchscreen HMI
- Keyence GL-series safety light curtains
- Omron safety relays
- Allen-Bradley PowerFlex 40 VFDs
- Hytrol conveyors, incl. 2-zone reject conveyor
- SMC pneumatics
Scope of Work
- Up-Front Engineering
- Mechanical Design
- Controls Design
- Panel Build
- Robot Programming
- Vision Integration
- PLC/HMI Programming
- Installation
- Commissioning
Results
The cell runs 24/7 with zero operators, taking every heavy casting from infeed to shipping bin in under 25 seconds. Team members no longer lift castings, and four-point vision inspection now catches the target defect in-house and diverts it before it can ship. Every serial number is tied to its bin for full traceability, and the system holds 99% efficiency with high operational availability (OA) in high-volume automotive production.