Production line for filler
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- Nine different product variants in one system
- 100% inspection
Production line for a colorful bouquet of fountain pens
All consumables are mass-produced. Low price, high volumes, top quality. PIA Automation fulfills these requirements. Our knowledge of critical product characteristics and specific production processes gives our customers in the consumer goods industry a competitive edge through shorter time-to-market, as we enable more efficient production implementation. This is why a German manufacturer of fountain pens approached PIA.
Precision and 100% testing for optimal product quality
The system consists of five fully automatic assembly cells and one manual workstation, which are connected via workpiece carrier circulation systems. The writing unit and the cap are assembled in two compact basic modules. The rear part of the filler (container) is assembled in three linear modules, and the sub-assemblies are checked, cleaned, assembled, and packaged. The manual workstation is used for quality control and reworking.
The customer applied great importance to quality, which is why 100% of the assembled pens are subjected to an automatic writing test. To do this, each writing unit has to be filled with ink. The ink is fed into the unit by means of spigots, filling heads, lines, and pinch valves. Paper is also needed for writing, so the test station is equipped with a paper roll and a rewinding unit. Once the units are filled and the paper is in position, 4 pen assemblies are removed from the workpiece carriers and transferred to the gripper system of the writing test. The gripper system swivels the four units and drags them on the paper. A miniature vibration sensor is adapted to each individual nib. Before the test, the nib is briefly tapped so that the ink can flow into the nib. A writing pattern (contour) is traced and the structure-borne sound is recorded with the sensor, thus recording the scratching noises of the nibs on the paper. A camera checks the typeface (type thickness, interruptions). Bad parts are ejected to the manual workstation.
Automated cleaning and assembly in writing instrument production
After the writing test, the assemblies are cleaned. This is done using injectors that suck the residual ink out of the ink duct. In a cleaning chamber, a CO2 cleaning nozzle is moved past the assemblies with a servo axis and the nibs are cleaned. A vertical air flow is generated by a suction device, which extracts dirt particles and the CO2. Vision systems use incident light to check the surface of the nibs for ink contamination, scratches, and bending. After the writing test and cleaning, the unit and container are assembled. In the final module, the pre-assembled cap is placed on the fountain pen and the writing instruments are packed in paper trays, known as rondos.
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