Peco stays on track with Wittmann automation

Devon-based Peco Model Railways says it is reaping the productivity benefits of its investment in Wittmann automation for one of its key injection moulding cells.

The Wittmann W818 robot has been helping to mould lengths of the company’s famous Peco Streamline model railway track, with the automated moulding cell both realising payback and releasing labour for upskilled tasks elsewhere in the Peco plant.

The Peco cell works off a two-shot mould deployed on a cycle time of approximately 10 seconds. As well as picking, placing and releasing the products and the sprue, the W818 is also programmed to stack each length of Streamline track into boxes that then index down a conveyor, ready for further assembly work within the Peco factory.

The tracks are coloured dark brown and moulded in HPDE, with 60 percent of the virgin production recycled into the moulding process as regrind. The Wittmann-automated cell has options to recycle this inline – or else to bag the sprue regrind and use later in the production schedule.

Peco currently has a total of eleven injection moulding machines for its model railway production. Intent on full backward integration, Peco has invested extensively in its tool making and CAD/CAM facilities.

“Model railway enthusiasts – our customers – are some of the most exacting customers in the world. To stay ahead of the curve our design and manufacture has to keep satisfying this passion for microscopic detail,” Ben Arnold, Peco’s Engineering Director commented. “This – and the benefits of modern moulding – contribute to keeping the Peco name at the head of the market place.”