The two principle methods of applying the coatings are by spray finishing, generally used by Far East manufacturers of imported product, and coil coating technology where the bakeware material is supplied pre-coated before being pressed into shape.  

Leading the drive for pre-coated metals in the UK and European Bakeware sector is Cooper Coated Coil (CCC) who, since the early 70’s when it was the first company to apply non-stick coatings by coil coating technology, has continually invested in the process.   

“Now more than at any time since its development, bakeware manufacturers and users are enjoying significant benefits from using coated metals as opposed to spray finished products,” explains Kevin Tranter, CCC’s Managing Director.  “Efficiency of the way the coated product performs is of course important but increasingly important now, to both the manufacturer and the consumer, is the energy efficiency of the manufacturing and logistics process to get the product to the end user.”

Cooper Coated Coil - £5million pound investment in process equipment

Investing over £5 million over the past two years in advanced coating equipment, CCC has doubled its capacity, reduced lead times and can apply a greater range of materials with increased accuracy.  The resultant increase in efficiency is already benefitting manufacturers.

“Manufacturers are increasingly wising up to the fact that consumers expect and want to know that product has a ‘low as possible’ carbon footprint and that is what coated coil gives them,” continues Kevin.  “Besides removing the obvious high energy cost of shipping materials around the world before landing in the UK, coated coil is a low energy coating process compared with spray finishing.

“Application efficiency of our coil coating process is 95% – just 5% wastage – while spray finishing is typically only 60% efficient – that’s a lot of energy wasted as spray emissions.”

The argument for coated coil technology becomes straight-forward when products are subjected to the industry standard test for coating efficiency.  Under CCC laboratory conditions, take one ‘standard’ sized chicken and roast for a set period of time, soak the tray – 5 minutes, light hand wash, dish wash and repeat 15 times while observing the coating condition. 

CCC test records illustrate clearly that in bakeware ‘all that glitters is not gold’.  Far East imports which often cost more and are made from thicker material – giving the perception of a higher quality product – are spray coated and fail through coating imperfections often before the 15 tests are complete.

To Kevin Tranter there is no argument, “Coil coating technology has come a long way, it provides the end user with an efficient product, it is a low energy process generating minimal waste relative to spray finishing and provides a highly competitive low carbon footprint solution for the manufacturer.  We will continue to invest in this technology as it becomes more widely adopted by the industry.”

FANUC M10-iA robot

ALM’s cubicle products are used throughout the UK in schools, leisure facilities, offices, hotels and hospitals and it has earned a reputation for quality and flexibility of design to meet customer specific requirements.  Using quality materials throughout, such as aerospace grade aluminium, has exposed the business to aggressive pricing from both UK and overseas competition.

Using its own considerable in-house resources and capabilities allows ALM to remain competitive and also to provide an efficient subcontract engineering service.  Continuous investment in CNC machine tools has seen consistent demand for ALM products and growth in the business resulting in the need for night shift operations.

Andy Hey, ALM Products Sales and Marketing Manager, explains, “ Finding ‘die hard’ night shift operators isn’t so easy these days and many tasks required fairly straight forward loading and unloading of components into CNC machines.  Using a robot seemed the best option for us and already using FANUC ROBODRILL CNC machines effectively steered us in that direction.”

A system was supplied by FANUC Robotics comprising a 10Kg payload FANUC M10-iA robot complete with grippers, guarding and a work input table.  A highly compact arm, the M10-iA minimises the amount of space required while allowing several functions, including in process inspection, to be carried out in the same work area.

The work input table allows raw material, for example aluminium cubicle connecting blocks 150mm x 50mm x 10mm, to be stacked and arranged in rows to enable continuous unattended operation.  Typically 500 aluminium billets are loaded onto the input table and the system is allowed to run through until all blocks have been finish machined.

“Maybe in the early days of installation the investment could have seemed extravagant for a smaller business such as ALM”, continues Andy, “we initially had a limited knowledge and the changes in batch were frequent but we’ve learnt to adapt and find what’s best for the cell that can run through the night totally unmanned – now we’re reaping the rewards and benefits.

“From a subcontract engineering capacity viewpoint the robot has given us the advantage of saying to a customer that we can turn round say 400 off components for a next day delivery without the cost of a night shift – this makes us very competitive.”

From the business view point ALM believes the investment sends out a strong message, concludes Andy, “For our industry we’re cutting edge, the system has proved to be relatively low cost for us, maintaining our high quality reputation while remaining competitive and increasing our subcontract resources – we’ll probably be investing in more!”

Typical parts available as service exchange include electronic components such as motors, encoders, servos, boards and pendants.  In addition FANUC Robotics has extended the offering to include selected mechanical assemblies such as wrist joints.

Introducing the service Tom Bouchier, Service Manager FANUC Robotics, commented, “Our refurbished parts offer great savings over new parts and unlike refurbished parts from other [non FANUC] sources they meet all CE approval requirements having been tested in our own factory.  Plant uptime is always of prime importance to FANUC robot users and our factory refurbished parts provide the assurance equal to a new factory part.

“Environmentally this is a good service for us to offer customers – it makes our products more sustainable and reduces energy used in new manufacture.”

The full range of components and assemblies for service exchange is extensive and available from FANUC Robotics direct by contacting 02476639669.

Although due to be relocated to a brand new £28 million facility in Washington Co Durham, the recently installed manufacturing facility is currently operating at BAE Systems’ Birtley plant which dates back to 1916.  Operating alongside an existing manually operated facility the new manufacturing cell removes operators from potentially hazardous areas, occupies a quarter of the space, requires 4 less operators per shift, has increased product quality and has increased available capacity.

The overall system comprises four separate robot controlled manufacturing cells capable of independent operation to allow maintenance and retooling to be undertaken without stopping production.  The system is designed to manufacture both the 105mm and 155mm shell with quick changeover routines embodied into the manufacturing processes.

Cells one to three each have two Doosan Puma CNC machine centres, supplied by Mills CNC Ltd, the prime contractor, which provide a degree of flexibility dependent on production demand.  Cell four has a single machine centre.  Each cell has a FANUC Robotics R2000iB/175 robot loading machines and peripheral equipment.

Shells are progressively machined in each cell and transfer between cells is managed by outputting machined parts onto link conveyors designed by Ewab Engineering Group for collection by the FANUC Robotics robot in the next cell.  LEAN manufacturing processes are employed to identify waste within the system and, to ensure the system will run continuously with planned stoppages, cells are linked with the smallest sized buffer conveyor possible. 

On receipt of order Mills CNC contracted complete system integration of equipment and communications to FANUC Robotics UK limited.   Jeff Robson, MASS Transformation Engineer for BAE Systems Birtley, commented, “ Machining the shells is the core process on this system so Mills, who had developed similar systems within BAE Systems, was the natural selection for prime contractor.  The effective operation of this system has been a partnership between BAE Systems and all the suppliers involved.  As the robots are central to handling product throughout the system FANUC Robotics expertise for cell and system integration was utilised.

“Communications are enabled through I/O at machine level with Profibus enabling significant volumes of data to be collected for OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) calculations and display of system performance through a large monitor”.

Advanced manufacturing software has allowed BAE Systems to develop and apply strict controls throughout the machining process and maintenance procedures – SMS messages and E Mail prompts are activated by the system to specific Team members to ensure required human intervention is prepared and made when needed.

The four R-2000iB robots each have specially engineered grippers designed by FANUC Robotics – these handle the shell either on its Outside Diameter or the fuse bore Internal Diameter.  Each cell has peripheral equipment in the form of two way conveyors for inspection or additional process checking purposes.

Cells three and four both have marking systems developed by Pryor Ltd into which the cell robot positions and holds the shell as information, defined by process, is applied.  One of these processes involves a shell weigh inspection operation with a pass fail decision needed. 

One cell includes an advanced  robotic flaw detect inspection system using Eddy current and phased array technologies supplied by NDT Ltd into which the cell robot loads and unloads machined shells.  In another cell the robot picks and loads a driving band to a machined groove which is then pressed to fit in a two press operation designed by Orwin Ltd.

Linear rails are employed in two cells to enable the respective robots a greater working range to undertake additional processes and operations to maximise their potential.  The rail units, engineered by FANUC Robotics, effectively make the robots seven axes units.

Jeff Robson continues, “Operator uptake and acceptance of the system has been excellent – we have a saying which we stick to when engineering any process ‘Simple’s best, simple’s easy and simple’s understood’ – this works for us as we avoid unnecessary complications so operators can take it over, monitor performance  and invariably improve upon it using a PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Act) philosophy!

“We are due to start to move to the new facility in September and this system is already effectively contributing to the efficient cost-down manufacture of munitions for the MoD.”

USP VI compliant and developed to meet the needs of food and Pharma processes, Garlock GYLON® diaphragms are highly flexible without permanent deformation and offer chemical resistance equivalent to PTFE.  The flexibility ensures GYLON® diaphragms will not crack through repeated operation eliminating process retention and cross contamination.

Equally flexible to the diaphragm is its back-up which is manufactured from a long lasting silicone.  The silicone back-up ensures that an even and constant pressure is applied to the diaphragm throughout its lifetime. 

Resistance to high temperatures in excess of 200°C make the diaphragms particularly suitable for processes or cleaning where steam is intermittently passed through a process.    The compressibility of GYLON® is 25% making it softer and easier to tighten than equivalent PTFE diaphragms.

With its focus on miniature solenoid technology, Norgren FAS has a reputation for pioneering and innovative approaches to fluid control.  Working with leading Life Science sector equipment manufacturers has led to the development of efficient solutions for many control applications.

Mel Hood, Life Sciences Business Manager, Norgren, explains, “The Life Sciences Team is able to create engineering advantage for Norgren FAS users, very often, by simply helping them to avoid ‘re-inventing the wheel’.  With 35 years experience  operating in the medical sector we challenge users to bring us problems we haven’t seen before – the bottom line is we probably have seen a similar requirement and as a result can quickly provide an engineered solution. 

“We do know we don’t have answers for everything but we also know that we can save design engineers’ time and refine their supply chain with added value solutions manufactured and tested to Norgren’s high standards.”

Performing a standard industry palletising test – moving 400mm up, 2,000mm horizontally and 400mm down – while handling a 60Kgs payload,  the new M-410iB/140H  performs 1,900 cycles per hour.  The speed and compact design make it ideally suited for high capacity production requirements in bag and box palletising.

The articulated design of the M-410i range already makes it ideal for confined areas but the revised design of the new arm makes it even more compact and ideal for areas with low ceilings.  A new slimmer forearm and wrist, already proven on the FANUC Robotics R-2000 and M-900 series, is equipped with integrated cableways to speed up system installation and to avoid cable snags and breakages.

The robot can be either floor or plinth mounted to provide a cylindrical work envelope of 5.7Mtr diameter by up to a maximum height of 3.5Mtr.  This large work envelope together with its high speed offers significant opportunities for multiple lines to be served in high volume environments by a single M-410i/140H.

The Technology Showcase visit was organised by IME (Inside Manufacturing Enterprise) for the Manufacturing Advisory Service West Midlands (MAS-WM) to familiarise attendees with robotic process solutions that could benefit their organisations. 

The focus of the visit was to illustrate how businesses of all types and size, not just large organisations mass producing product, are benefitting from robotic automation.  The diversity of applications discussed showed the attendees that robots have now become highly affordable and reliable workers that consistently produce high quality products competitively.

Examples illustrated businesses that are not able to find skilled workers such as welders or even reliable workers prepared to undertake often monotonous repetitive duties.  These ranged from machine loading through to packaging of food and palletising.

Based in Barnsley, Foster’s Bakery has a ‘can do’ attitude when it comes to production processes in its factory.  A trip round a fully automated bakery in Holland several years ago illustrated to Directors John Foster and Michael Taylor just what could be done to enhance manufacturing capability. 

Identifying an oven loading application as a starting point Fosters worked with a local engineering company to integrate a FANUC Robotics M-710iA articulated robot.  Michael Taylor, Operations Director, explains, “The nature of reel ovens is that the shelves continually move making it impossible for a single operator to unload a full tray of baked products and replace the same shelf with dough.  In practice many shelves are left to rotate without anything loaded onto them while the operator aims to keep them filled.”

This first attempt at automating the process didn’t go too well for Fosters with the robot, wrongly, being perceived to be the issue.  At this early stage the services of The Centre for Food Robotics and Automation (CENFRA) were called upon to analyse the situation and to see what could be done.

“The robot was certainly not at fault and it was clear that several variables in the process, trays, positioning and tray trolleys, hadn’t been accounted for sufficiently,” continued Michael, “In fact the biggest lesson learned here was to always ensure that the systems engineering company is fully proficient with food sector robotics and automation.”

To get the installation back on track, Fosters called on FANUC Robotics UK Ltd who were able to project manage the system to completion.  The system comprises a FANUC Robotics M-710iA robot which has a specially engineered gripper with a capacity to handle two trays positioned one above the other.  The gripper design allows loaded trays to be collected from shelves or deposited to shelves when receiving a signal from the robot control system.

The M-710ia Robot aligns the gripper with a full tray of dough products and, after gripping the end of the tray, retracts it from the trolley into the gripper framework.  The robot then moves the gripper to the reel oven which moves trays on a continually operating vertical loop.  The robot waits at the loading area until a sensor gives a signal to indicate a tray is aligned, and while simultaneously moving at a pre-programmed speed, clamps and withdraws a tray of baked products and then pushes a tray of dough onto the oven shelf – the transfer process at each location taking just 2 seconds.

The speed of the process means that shelves are now always full of dough so apart from a measured increase in capacity of 80% there is also a significant improvement in energy utilisation – estimated at an energy saving of 50% for the process.

Fosters claim this is the first time this application has been automated using a robot and credit it to ‘out of the box’ thinking.  “It takes time and patience to get these systems right but the rewards are very high.  The robot started to earn money for the business before it was even operating,” explained Michael, “when visiting the bakery our customers, who include Europe’s leading Coffee Shop businesses, were left in no doubt that Fosters is committed to investment in the business and its product.”

On a lighter note Michael explained the effect of the robot on the workforce as very positive.  He explained that when the robot was first installed the operators fetched him to see it, amazed at the speed of operation.  “The effect on me was surreal at this stage as I’d seen the operation reduced from two operators loading, to one robot loading and 13 operators watching!  This was early days though and we’re already seeing significant returns on the investment,” concluded Michael.