The broad competences of SARES and MIRAMONDI IMPIANTI about process technologies support the major household appliance leaders in the world. The customized production lines are designed according to the specific requirements of each customer, with cutting-edge solutions of sheet metal forming and assembly and related automation.
A tailor-made solution for white goods
We can easily observe a concrete example of the know-how of SARES and MIRAMONDI IMPIANTI. We analyse the various elements that make up a solution engineered and manufactured for a renowned white good company. It is a customized, fully automatic and integrated line for the production of washing machine drums, provided with front, back, spider and paddles.
Three press lines
Three press lines (respectively for the production of the shell, front and back) have been integrated with the drum welding, aesthetical forming and assembly area. «Starting from coil – Simone Banfi, technical director of MIRAMONDI IMPIANTI, explains – the flat shell is stamped by a 2-press line and marked with a QR code that identifies its model, allowing customers to trace it along the whole working process. A buffer system allows storing the drum shell so produced, to go on feeding the welding area even when the press line is idle for maintenance».
Laser welding
Inside the successive laser welding cabin, the edges of the shell are cleaned with a laser cleaning system. This assures the removal of contaminating elements and processes the surface at best for the welding process. The shell is then rolled up and welded by a laser torch.
The next steps
Unloaded from welding unit, the drum is then expanded. And it is automatically moved into the post-expansion control station of the laser welded ends. Such control is carried out by a laser scanner. It analyses the welding quality in different spectral ranges to identify eventual micro-cracks or fractures, which automatically lead to the piece rejection.
The drum is afterwards customized through the aesthetical forming process. And it is automatically assembled with front and back (through crimping), with the spider (through screwing) and with paddles.
Concerning the front, it is stamped by 3 stations press line, integrated by a system of curled edge integrity control. The back, instead, is formed by 2 stations press line. This is integrated by an inspection system of possible breaks in the most critical area caused by the process of stamping and deep drawing. In case of anomalies, pieces are automatically rejected. This is true also for the spider screwing station. Finally, a last control station checks the drum sizes and automatically rejects uncompliant pieces.
The Advanced Process Monitoring (APM) system
The section of drum welding and aesthetical forming has been integrated by the Advanced Process Monitoring (APM) system. This is the industrial solution by SARES and MIRAMONDI IMPIANTI for the predictive maintenance and the process optimization. One of the hardware solutions at the base of the APM operation is the IoT Cabinet. This is equipped with Power Unit, industrial PC and NAS SSD disk for the secure data filing.
«APM –Simone Banfi explains – uses forefront IoT and Machine Learning technologies to analyse production and process data and to identify anomalous trends and behaviours of machines. In this way, it is possible to achieve a clear understanding of the machine health state, proactively facing eventual problems and programming the maintenance intervention before the failure occurs».
