Custom injection molder Royal Plastics Inc., Brookings, S.D., has added a Bole 350 EK-S-series 386-ton press to its stable of injection molding machines serving a variety of industries, including fenestration, agriculture, after-market automotive, electrical, housewares and furniture.
The new press boosts Royal’s automation capabilities with a top-entry, servo-controlled Cartesian robot from Ranger Automation Systems Inc.
“The automation of this machine is going to be way beyond what we are currently doing,” said President Mike Peterson. “Currently, the other machines only have sprue pickers. This robot will have the ability to place inserts in the mold, pull parts out of the mold, stack them in the boxes and count them. It also will de-gate parts. Our first end-of-arm tooling will be adjustable, enabling us to pull many different part sizes.”
After comparison shopping among three other suppliers, Royal chose the unit from Bole Machinery Inc., Stow, Ohio, because of its quality, price and features, such as an advanced control that gathers information from all peripheral equipment and is designed for Industry 4.0 functionality. The press replaces an existing machine, keeping Royal’s number of presses at 15.
