Crimping plugs with flexiPRESS

With an output of over 10 million connectors per week, our customer is one of the world market leaders in its segment. One of its main strengths lies in the in-house development of its production facilities. Its in-depth know-how and constant pursuit of perfection enable it to achieve a high level of product quality while maintaining high production efficiency: two decisive factors in sustainably securing Switzerland as a production location.

These connectors are used in the fields of telecommunications, information technology, the automotive industry, aviation and medical technology. As part of an optimization process, the customer decided to replace the existing pneumatic presses with electromechanical servo presses from Parkem. The advantages of the electromechanical alternative are obvious:

- lower energy consumption
- full parameterization capability
- high dynamics
- very quiet operation
- high reproducibility of the pressing process

The modular flexiPRESS is used. The press module was designed and defined on the basis of the force, precision and speed requirements. The easyPRESS functions required for the process were also specified. The servo press presses on the block with the force limit function. The maximum permissible force is freely defined via a default value and controlled via the motor current, which in this case even makes a force sensor redundant.

Unlike the pneumatic press, the travel profile can be precisely defined with the electromechanical servo press. This ensures that the press is lowered gently, preventing impacts. The adjustable target force is in the range of 1 to 9 kN.

These servo presses are used at various manual assembly stations and are in direct contact with the employees who combine the plug connectors with the insulation body before the press presses in the contacts. The pressing process is triggered by a two-handed operation.

The multifunctional force measurement control comPRESS carries out the control and sequences of the pressing functions on the one hand, and on the other hand it directly regulates the servo motor of the press.

The EtherCAT interface is used to exchange the relevant process parameters as well as control and status information in real time. Each pressing process is monitored by the comPRESS. At the end of the pressing process, the higher-level control system is informed whether the pressing process was successful or not.

A pre-defined XML description file from Parkem simplifies integration into the higher-level control system. This eliminates the need for manual compilation of the EtherCAT mapping. Parkem has parameterized the press plug & work and connected it directly to the higher-level PLC during commissioning and optimization.

The customer's expectations were focused mainly on improvements such as higher dynamics, full parameterizability and high reproducibility. These were fully met.

However, the customer was very pleasantly surprised by the noise reduction. This fact exceeded all expectations. The servo presses operate much more quietly than the previous pneumatic presses. This has resulted in an unexpectedly significant improvement in noise pollution, making the work environment more pleasant and boosting efficiency.