Consistency is Competitiveness.
For over 75 years, Prince Manufacturing's precision hydraulic cylinders have been key components in everything from agricultural equipment to NASA’s lunar lander.
That kind of longevity doesn’t happen without consistent system improvement. So when overseas competition put pressure on Prince's business, they turned to Acieta for a smarter solution to handle the production of cylinder rods.
Now, 80% of the rods in their Hartington, Nebraska factory are produced by an automated Cylinder Rod Machining System, delivering 600-700 rods of consistent quality every day.
0-Touch
No Manual Labor Involvement
Constraints
6 Touches
Operators had to manually load and transfer 80lb steel rods between straps
Capacity
Increasing throughput with their existing team size was essential to a competitive solution
Throughput
The system needed to produce 600-700 rods per day at consistent quality
Outcome
0 Touches
Fully automated process without any manual intervention
2X Productivity
One operator monitors the system while running another machine, doubling productivity.
1 Rod/Min
With infeed and outbound robots serving two twin spindle lathes, the system produces two rods every 120 seconds
“Automation is making us more consistent in our quality and more competitive in our marketplace.”
Dan Van Eldik
President and CEO
Solutions Integrated
Lathe Integration
The heart of Prince's system is two twin-spindle lathes that machine rod ends and precision threading, meeting Prince's manufacturing tolerances of 0.01mm.
Multi-Cell Material Handling
Two FANUC R-2000iC robots move material between the cell's five substations. The first robot handles rods between cutting, annealing and the lathe infeed; the second serves the lathe outfeed, the inspection station, and bundles rods for transport to assembly.
Automated Annealing Integration
Automated robotic material handling moves rods between an annealer station and the cooling rack, and tests rod temperature before feeding into the lathe.
Thread Inspection and Quality Control
Every cylinder rod is automatically inspected at a camera station for thread accuracy before being wrapped and stacked for transport to assembly. Non-conforming parts are automatically sorted out for rework or recycling.
Lathe Integration
The heart of Prince's system is two twin-spindle lathes that machine rod ends and precision threading, meeting Prince's manufacturing tolerances of 0.01mm.
Multi-Cell Material Handling
Two FANUC R-2000iC robots move material between the cell's five substations. The first robot handles rods between cutting, annealing and the lathe infeed; the second serves the lathe outfeed, the inspection station, and bundles rods for transport to assembly.
Automated Annealing Integration
Automated robotic material handling moves rods between an annealer station and the cooling rack, and tests rod temperature before feeding into the lathe.
Thread Inspection and Quality Control
Every cylinder rod is automatically inspected at a camera station for thread accuracy before being wrapped and stacked for transport to assembly. Non-conforming parts are automatically sorted out for rework or recycling.
