Injection and blow molding operations don’t make money unless the mold is closed. But loading and unloading machines is dull, repetitive, and injury-prone work that is challenging to staff. That makes it ideal for automation. UR robot arms are available in a range of reach and payload capabilities. They can be integrated into existing facilities with high-mix, low-volume production that can’t be cost-effectively automated with traditional robots.

Flexible cobots can also be redeployed throughout a plastics manufacturing facility to automate many other processes. Those include secondary processes such as degating, grinding, spru removal, and polishing, as well as applying labels or decals to plastic parts. Cobots can be deployed for assembly and packaging and palletizing processes, working safely alongside operators after a risk assessment.

As plastics manufacturers expand into additive processes such as 3D printing, collaborative robots provide additional advantages. Cobots can work around the clock to keep printer farms humming. Lightweight cobots can be mounted on mobile carts and still have long enough reach to load and unload plates from multiple printers.