Increasing automation on the plant floor
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OKI, Japan's first telecommunications equipment manufacturer, is currently working toward an impressive goal - expanding overseas sales from the current 35 percent to 50 percent of total sales by the year 2010. To support this goal, the company is aiming to strengthen its local structures and facilities, and amplify its integrated business processes, including product development and manufacturing.
"In terms of products, we have seen our share in the color printing market grow," said Peter Barnes, senior operations engineer at OKI. "This has led to increased production and capacity requirements for our manufacturing operations."
Barnes works to support the company's manufacturing operation at its plant in Glasgow, Scotland. Automation, Barnes explains, is a way to remain competitive in a changing manufacturing landscape while meeting those increased operation requirements. Over the last few years, OKI, like many manufacturers, has seen a move toward out-sourcing to areas where labor costs are low. "A major part of my role is to identify areas for improvement not only in products, but in manufacturing processes. This has led to us introduce more automated processes and equipment."
Conveying difficult-to-handle powder
One process that the company decided to improve upon was the transfer of toner powders from the plant's ground level into filler heads. "The physical properties of our toner powder had led to many leaks and blockages with our older systems," said Barnes. "This resulted in poor housekeeping and low levels of cleanliness. It also required constant technical support from production technicians resulting in unacceptable levels of downtime and lost production hours. A big challenge for us was to provide an effective solution that addressed the shortfalls of our old system at a sensible cost."
OKI was also interesting in improving the working environment in its facility. "We wanted to enclose the point where toner powder was loaded into hoppers. With our old systems, this was just not practicable."
Another component of the improvement was finding a solution that both complied with ATEX legislation and also met/exceeded Health and Safety regulations and guidelines.
Under the recommendation of OKI's filling machine supplier, Allfill, the company started working with PIAB to replace its previously specified vacuum transfer systems with 28 of PIAB's C21 vacuum conveyors to move the toner. The enclosed vacuum conveyors, made of stainless steel AISI 316L (EN 1.4404), safely and quietly handle the toner powder in the manufacturing facility.
"There are 28 filler heads which are manually operated to fill toner cartridges," explained Barnes. "Each filler head has its own C21 conveyor that is operated from a high level switch so that there is a constant level in the filler hopper. This promotes better volumetric accuracy for the cartridge fill."
The PIAB conveyors are transporting the toner in distances ranging from 4-20m for the color filler heads, and 4-25m for the mono filler heads. With a daily throughput of 2000kg of toner powder, each conveyor is handling about 10kg of powder per hour.
A clean, cost effective result
"The PIAB conveyors have exceeded our expectations in terms of capability and performance and have lead to significant improvements across the production shop floor," said Barnes. The use of PIAB conveyors has improved the reliability of the filling process. Barnes cited reduced downtime as a major benefit of the new conveyors, and stated that the level of technical support required is incredibly low. "Our new PIAB systems are extremely reliable, and much more cost effective to operate than the old systems."
The conveyors have also proved easy to clean and simple to maintain. "By switching to PIAB we have taken a huge step forward in the cleanliness of our manufacturing facility. This is without doubt a massive improvement for our workforce, contractors and visitors." OKI also found that the lifecycle of PIAB's filters was much greater than that of the previous system's filters. This has resulted in significant reductions in the company's running costs.
10 July 2007
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