Pittsburgh-based Ace Wire Spring & Form Co. Inc. is a leading maker of custom springs and wire forms, including metal wire that is formed into hooks. The manufacturing process is highly complex, with 10 steps in the hook production process — beginning with bending the wire into 5-cm hooks, passing the hooks as bulk material into bins, and inserting them into a press that forms the ends.After the hook ends are pressed, they are brought to another station where an operator puts a bead on the flattened end of the hook, and the bead and the hook then get pressed together with a spring. The bead thus holds the spring in place and the spring gets tapered around. The final product is a swivel hook extension spring that can be used as a tensioning spring for fan belt pulleys.
CapSen Robotics’ combination of 3D vision and motion planning software can turn any conventional industrial robot arm into a bin picking and machine-tending cell