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The Tandis TS-1600 Assembly Line
The new Tandis TS-1600 has abandoned the workcell design for a conveyor-based fully automated production line. The TS-1600 can produce more than 1,600 cards per hour on eight workstations build around a conveyor system. The workstations and conveyor are controlled by a standard PC running Tandis’ custom software. The machine contains two pick and place workstations, four wire embedder workstations, and two welder workstations. There are many localized I/O control modules throughout the machine to decentralize the controls greatly reducing the wiring.
The conveyor and frame are built from Bosch components. The conveyor uses anti-static belts, customized pallets, and lift to move the sheets from station to station and position them for operation. The pallets move in a smooth manner with soft stops and cushions to prevent jamming. Each pallet contains a precision polished granite surface on an antistatic Bosch pallet frame. It provides an excellent embedding surface that is non-metallic for testing on pallet and includes integrated vacuum manifold, precision sheet locating pins, and RFID tags.
At the beginning of the assembly line a sheet loader takes a blank sheet from the supply drawer and loads it onto a pallet. The drawer has a capacity of four hors of production. The sheet feeder features automatic sensing of the sheet format. The next process consists of lifting the pallet off the conveyor it and positioning it. It accurately locates the pallet every time. It features vacuum ports to interface with the pallet and air cushions for gentle operations.
The three following processes are the most important phases of inlay (or inlet) manufacturing:
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Punch, pick and place |
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Wire embedding |
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Micro welding |
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The process ends with the sheet unloader that takes a finish sheet from the pallet and places it into the product drawer.
This conveyor system has three main advantages over the previous workcell design:
- The conveyor system takes less space
- The conveyor system allows components to be shared, reducing cost
- The conveyor system eliminates sheet feeding at every workcell, greatly increasing throughput and dramatically increasing quality yields, by eliminating defects created by handling sheets between work cells.
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Punch, pick and place
