April 7, 2016 — The engineering design consultancy Ingenium Integration has developed a multifunction automated production cell for H & E Knowles, the UK-based wheelbarrow manufacturer. The cell will speed the production of wheelbarrow full and part frames by eliminating many labor-intensive aspects of production. It is scheduled to be commissioned in Q2 2016. Ingenium Integration bases many of its automated production cell designs around all-electric tube benders from Unison – its parent company.
The system being built for H & E Knowles is a 1.5-inch (38 mm) twin head model from Unison’s all-electric Breeze range. It features a left and right head on the same carriage that facilitates precision symmetrical bending to reduce cycle times with an off-set facility to enable asymmetrical bending of the final tight bend at the wheel end of wheelbarrow frames, while avoiding collision with machine architecture. The production cell comprises a tube bundle loader, tube orientation station with seam detection, intermediate dual-arm loader, bending machine and several articulated robotic handlers, as well as swaging, hole punching and cut to length stations.
It fully automates the entire wheelbarrow frame manufacturing process, from raw tube material handling through to final pre-paint finishing and quality inspection. The cell was developed at Ingenium Integration’s design center in Manchester, UK and then manufactured and assembled in a facility at its parent company Unison.
