Smart Manufacturing

Automating the Toner Cartridge Production Line

1. Flexible process upgrade: in accordance with the original automation equipment, according to the actual situation of each production line, manual operation is arranged for the difficult or long automation cycle stations first, and the combination of man and machine, upgrades and changes to see the effect, reduces the production line The risks and costs of the transformation;
2. Personnel optimization: The original manual assembly line requires 15 people. After the realization of intelligent production, it can be reduced to 0~5 people according to the production line situation, which effectively reduces labor costs and improves management efficiency;
3. Simultaneous production of multiple work orders: Equipped with an original intelligent scheduling system, which can realize the simultaneous production of multiple types of work orders, the production line is modularized, the production line is fast and convenient, and the production process is tracked in real-time;
4. Dual-track shunt production: The production line adopts dual high-speed transmission tracks and is equipped with a self-developed control system to realize intelligent scheduling and shunting of product transmission, zero waiting on the track, and lean production capacity;
5. Intelligentization: The factory equipment defaults to having its own data collection function and MES open interface, which is convenient for managers to obtain the production status of the production line and improve the level of factory information management;
6. Automatic generation and digitization: equipped with our self-developed PTC® manufacturing execution system, integrated production line production data, visualized kanban to display production status, and realized data monitoring of equipment, quality control, and orders.PTC
Automtion Technologies Deliver The Same High Quality and Productivity Worldwide.

Background

To supply customers with a successful printing surrounding, PTC® has to provide its toner cartridges quickly and in excellent condition. PTC® has been generating Toner Cartridge ink and inkjet for quite a while. Back as soon as the variety of goods was little and monochrome printing was mainstream, PTC® utilized big machines to swiftly fill toner bottles in massive quantities with the exact same sort of toner powder. As color printing became increasingly popular and clients have to be diversified, the wide range of toners and cartridges improved appreciably. Accordingly, PTC® needed to create a toner filling system for high-mix low-volume production to cope with varying customer requirements. Our present toner filling system is fast and space-saving; in comparison to traditional machines, the time required to change to another product is 40 times quicker and the distance necessary for the machine is 1/40th of the distance required before.PTC® now produces and ships its own toner from places much closer to clients than ever before, thus decreasing the environmental impact related to the transport of toner cartridges and shortening lead times. To further improve quality throughout the Earth, and to fix the issues of labor shortages and price decrease, PTC® is always attempting to automate its own toner cartridge manufacturing lines.

PTC® Factory

Solution

In preceding toner cartridge manufacturing lines, workers stuffed bottles with toner built the toner cartridges and scrutinized them utilizing sensory evaluations. Quality depended heavily on the skill of the individual worker. Nowadays, toner cartridges have several purposes and, so, complicated structures, which makes it hard for folks to work on these and guarantee consistently substantial quality.

To be able to supply consistent quality internationally, PTC® pays special focus on the design stage, particularly for those parts having the largest impact on merchandise quality. Toner filling traces of the identical style are utilized throughout the planet, helping further reduce lead times.
PTC® has introduced robot-based fabrication methods, camera-based automatic review, and IoT (Web of Things) technology to raise the quality and efficacy of toner cartridge manufacturing lines.

Technical highlights

Our toner cartridge manufacturing lines include a series of procedures:

  1. Filling product-specific toner bottles with toner
  2. Attaching components to toner bottles
  3. Inspecting merchandise for quality (e.g. checking for leaks)
  4. Packing goods into packaging and cartons with the merchandise names printed on them

To replace Traditional human Jobs with robot-based Automatic systems, PTC®has implemented several Processes:

Filling product-specific toner bottles with toner

Compact sifter
Bulk toner goes through Ricoh’s original streamlined sifter, which uses airstreams. A compact toner filling system then matches the sifted toner into product-specific toner bottles. The energy- and – space-saving system boasts high efficiency.

Attaching components to toner bottles

Robots attach plastic components onto the toner bottles, building them into toner cartridges. The robots monitor information with apparatus such as a pressure sensor, checking the condition while the assembly is in progress. The system boasts constant high quality and a lower workload.

Inspecting merchandise for quality (e.g. checking for leaks)

In preceding toner cartridge manufacturing lines, individuals used sensory evaluations to guarantee quality. They shook a toner cartridge and inspected it for any leaks. Nowadays, both the necessary precision and production rates are too high for people to deal with. Thus, robots operate in combination with dedicated review systems, which can be secure and a lot more uniform than human hands. The systems prevent defective products from reaching the consumer.

Packing goods

In earlier times the packaging procedure relied upon human hands to manage soft materials such as corrugated cardboard and vinyl totes. The workload was difficult to reduce. Through a mix of robots and jigs, Ricoh has replicated human manipulation and automated the packaging procedure.

During the packaging process, on-demand printing is used to print product names and barcodes on packaging and cartons alike. The system is flexible enough to support a variety of packaging types.