This project was presented to SDC by a manufacturer looking for an assembly machine that would provide a significant efficiency increase compared to their existing equipment.  The customer was also looking for an increase in production capacity as the final wick assemblies were to feed a new high-speed home fragrance wall-plug production line.

SDC chose a two-sided (mirror image) rotary indexing machine with each side producing 70 parts per minute for a total capacity of 140 parts per minute.  The servo driven indexing dial provided a precision platform for the assembly operations.  The three components were bulk fed into the machine using vibratory bowl feeders.  The delivery of each component to the machine was verified using a sensor or vision camera.

The machine was equipped with one high speed pneumatic nail inserter per side that was used to complete the wick assembly.  A custom escapement was designed to delivery the nail to the inserter from the vibratory bowl.

The result was a fully automated assembly machine that met the customers efficiency and capacity goals presented at the beginning of the project.  The success of the project led to the customer ordering two more duplicate machines less than a year later to meet increased demand.