Coral Products, a moulding company for rigid packaging based in Haydock, Merseyside, has secured a contract to supply car parts for high brand car manufacturers, a project that will further link their facilities with longstanding machine supplier DB Automation.
DB Automation started helping Coral Products in 2003, to help them automate manufacture of their multi-media production. Since then DB Automation supplied several systems to Coral for injection moulding automation. This continued to 2011 when Coral entered a new market for food containers, a further application of DB Automation machines.
Andy Jones, Coral General Manager, said: “2017 is proving to be an exciting year for Coral Products. As we embark on new ventures and enter new industries we are continuously looking for new methods to improve our efficiency and the quality of our products. Coral has worked in partnership with DB Automation for over 13 years and they were our first thought when we needed CFR systems to support our new venture in to the automotive industry. DB Automation have always been reliable, solution focussed and provided sound equipment that has stood the test of time.
“As we look to the future DB Automation will play a vital role in helping us to create visual systems and provide further automation of our procedures to enable us to reduce cycle times and improve efficiency. We are grateful for the continued service they provide and are looking forward to our continued professional development together.”
DB Automation
DB's CFR Robot
Coral required a system to allow them to make products without a fully automated system from start to finish.
After surveying several options for Coral, DB Automation decided on two systems, one for de-moulding and stacking tubs, and another for de-moulding and stacking lids. The systems were installed and the efficiencies have enabled Coral to grow their market share.
By October 2011, Coral had placed another order for DB’s flagship Compact Flexible de-mould Robot (CFR). The automation was again designed to de-mould and stack and then out-feed to operator packing area.
The CFR automation cell uses a secondary take-off axis to handle the product and stack on an outfeed conveyor. Coral then ordered a further four systems. Two of these were again for de-moulding and stacking bases, and the other two were for the corresponding lids. The lid systems used DB’s side entry beam robot, which has a high performance de-mould stroke and is ideally suited to thin products. This system again uses a common take-off axis for stacking.
Coral were delighted with the reliability, performance and support and in October 2014 they ordered a further CFR system. This system was to see the completion of a whole mould shop dedicated to food containers all running with DB Automation take-out systems. With no more space in that mould shop for additional systems, growing demand and new product variants meant expansion into other areas of the plant was inevitable.
Now expanding its facilities for the automotive industry, Coral has ordered a further CFR system, a swing arm axis which can reduce the cycle times of beam robots by 50 per cent. The robots are easy to use with a very high level of reliability and extremely small footprint.