Pick & Place Assembly Cell for Board-to-Board Adapters (EBC Bullets)

This is an automated assembly system for Board-to-Board connector adapters (or Bullets). For example the assembly robot is suitable for Rosenberger’s EBC (Efficient Board Connector) series. The system is meant to work autonomously – it can feed components, load and detect products, download recipes and perform quality control.

Challenge

The main task for the robot system is to insert EBC adaptors to circuit boards. The robot system must be universal so that it can be used for various products.

Multiple connector types (bullets variants)
Multiple product variants
Must be able to work autonomously
Dynamic recipe handling
Automated quality control included insertion process paramaters

Solution

Automated robot cell including:

Automated component feeding
Pick & Place robot system
Automated Optical Insepection
Adapter/Bullet insertion force and stroke measurement system
Automated recipe handling over OPC UA
Manual front loading or inline loading option

Communication with Hoob is always smooth, they are helpful and understand the special needs of a large factory. If something needs to be changed or developed, Hoob’s engineers get the idea quickly and start acting immediately.

Rainer Koorem Production Development Lead at Ericsson

Customer feedback

Versatile robots are used for different products

At the moment, three EBCell robots developed by Hoob are in use at Ericsson, the value of which, apart from the quality and speed of work, is their independence and the almost non-existent need for maintenance. In addition, the robots have low energy consumption and are safe, being equipped with various sensors and safety curtains. “We are not a typical mass production unit, but we deal with prototyping, preparing products for mass production, so flexibility and agility are important keywords for us – not all processes need to be automated. The three existing robots give us sufficient production capacity and flexibility, because the product portfolio is wide and these machines can can be used for many different products,” adds Koorem.