A medical device manufacturer approached us recently with another complex application.  Their label includes four sections.  The center section is approximately 20mm in diameter.  There are four outside sections that extend out from the center section by approximately 6mm and each outer section covers roughly 45 degrees of the circumference spaced equally about the circumference.  Each outside section is attached to the center section by two very small tabs.  This label construction is nothing special for our systems.  We regularly handle odd-shaped components and/or process multiple components on a single cycle.  What makes this application particularly noteworthy is the requirement that this label be applied to the inside of the minor diameter of a conical housing and that the center section be held ‘flat’, suspended in air just below the minor diameter, while the four outside sections be laminated to the inside walls of the conical housing.  The very small tabs that connect the four outer sections to the center section must not be damaged during installation, they must remain connected. 

This is a case that required a ‘proof of concept’ test.  Based on our initial review of the project we believed we had a solid concept for application but couldn’t guarantee the process without testing.  Our customer agreed to order a ‘proof of concept’ tooling package and sampling.  This allowed us to build the complex tooling required to truly test the process and to test it on an actual PL100 machine without requiring them to fully invest in the machine itself.  It also appropriately placed the costs of tooling development with the customer. 

In the end we determined that with a single tool and no special mechanisms that we could remove the label from the liner per the standard process delivered by our PL100 and then place the label onto the housing in a simple vertical stroke of the Tamp.   The insertion of our vacuum chuck tool into the conical housing resulted in the lamination of the four outer sections onto the inside walls of the housing.  The small tabs acted as very small hinges which allowed the center section to remain flat, suspended in the correct attitude and with no wrinkling or deformation.  Our customer had worked independently for quite some time attempting to develop this process unsuccessfully until they found Nautilus Systems Inc.  In the end our success allowed them to successfully identify a process for assembly of a critical component of their medical device.  We thank them for the opportunity and offer our services to other customers in the future.  Please think of Nautilus Systems Inc. for all of your adhesive component placement needs!

Imagine a label of approximately 50 x 75mm in size.  Now imagine that the label includes four small holes, one near each corner of the label.  The small holes are less than 2mm in diameter.  Now factor in that the label manufacturer only ‘guarantees’ that those hole positions will be maintained with a tolerance of +/- 0.2mm through the die-cut process.  Got it?  Finally, realize that the customer requires the label to be applied to their substrate such that those 2mm holes line up to 2mm holes on the substrate with a tolerance of 0.1mm concentricity!  Impossible, right?  Our PL Series of applicators are proven to provide very tight tolerance and very tight placement repeatability (as good as +/- 0.05mm) but if the customer requires a 6 sigma process with alignment of all four holes how can our system possibly provide a success? 

The answer: through creativity and a focus on delivering a successful result.  Yes, we did have an application exactly as described and yes we did deliver a successful system implementation using our PL Applicator with the EP package for Extreme Precision.  But we also used ‘outside of the box’ thinking to bring it all together. 

In this case we used precision locate pins to fixture the substrate at the four critical locations.  The pins were a slip fit to the substrate and incorporated a lead-in feature to allow easy loading of the substrate.  The PL Applicator, by its standard process, was used to feed and peel the label from the liner.  We added the ‘twist’ as we describe next.  The PL Tamp extends the label down to a position less than 1mm above the substrate.  Since the PL Applicator always feeds the label very precisely we can be certain that the fixture locate pins, which incorporate a slight lead-in and extend more than 1mm above the surface of the substrate, will enter the corresponding holes on the label.  We included clearance holes on the vacuum chuck so that there would be no interference with the pins.  We then turn off the vacuum, allowing the label to ‘fall’ onto the pins so that it is automatically aligned perfectly concentric to those pins.  We then allow the Tamp to extend the additional 1mm so that it presses the label down onto the substrate.  A slight amount of flexibility in the label allows it to conform to the locations that we have physically dictated by use of the pins.  Not only that, but the substrate and label are easily removed from the fixture even with the tight tolerances. 

Our retracting peel edge technology was initially developed to provide a highly reliable and highly accurate process for removing die-cut adhesive components from a continuous web (liner) and placing them accurately onto an assembly or other substrate.  Customers tended to be from high-tech industries with applications that no other technology could possibly handle.  That changed with the introduction of our PL series of Applicators.  As we continuously improved our processes, invested in better equipment and methods for manufacturing and assembly, and improved and simplified our designs we arrived at a position where we could provide our technology at a level of affordability nearly identical to standard ‘labelers’.  Labelers are really only appropriate for rectangular labels of decent size and while they’ll state that they can place items with +/- 0.75mm repeatability it is questionable what type of process capability will be the result.  Labelers provide a process of feeding a component over a peeling edge and using a combination of air puffs and vacuum to transfer the label onto a vacuum head.  We call their process ‘Flutter, Float, Levitate, and Hope’ due to the large number of variables in the setup and the variability in the actual placement results.  Our PL series of Applicators has no problem with any shape of component including Hang Tabs, which come in very odd shapes.  Some Hang Tabs are shaped like hooks; others have features and thru-holes that can be folded to provide the ‘hanger’ features.  Our PL series handles all of these equally well as a result of our patented retracting blade peel technology which we refer to as ‘Capture, Peel, Place’.  In our systems the component is always controlled either by its attachment to the web or by being positively captured by our vacuum head.  We never leave anything to chance.  In one application a customer required a Hang Tab to wrap around one side of a plastic housing that had a curved surface.  That system was setup for semi-automatic operation and worked wonderfully.  Another customer needed to apply Hang Tabs to a flat pad of paper in a semi-auto fashion, again everything worked with great results.  A more sophisticated requirement was brought by a customer with a highly automated bakery and packaging operation.  They needed the Hang Tabs applied, two per cycle, on baked goods in a plastic wrapper.  We provided two PL100i units on stands that positioned them over the bakery conveyor and through our configured I/O cable they were able to program their conveyor system to trigger the hang tab application on each cycle.  This system was replicated on another line as well.  These are just some of the typical requirements for Hang Tab application.  If you have requirements of this kind please contact Nautilus Systems, Inc. for further assistance.  Remember, it is always better to ‘Capture, Peel, Place’ than it is to ‘Flutter, Float, Levitate, and Hope’!

Nautilus Systems, Inc. has developed several specialty tamp modules to provide special functions as demanded by our customers.  For many applications our standard pneumatic Tamp, which provides 175mm of stroke and a preconfigured adapter plate for quick change of label-specific tooling, has been a successful module.  However, several applications of special requirements have been brought to our attention by customers and our engineering team has met the challenge in each case by design and implementation of specialty modules that are now a part of our portfolio of solutions. 

The simplest version required a longer stroke for the Tamp actuator.  In this case the customer requested over 300mm of stroke.  The longer stroke was required as a result of the physical constraints of a conveyor system that was used to transfer the product to which the label was applied that prohibited mounting the PL series applicator within range of the 175mm stroke.  Our engineers met the challenge by specifying and procuring a specialized tamp cylinder of over 400mm stroke and implementing longer bearing rails which allowed us to utilize 90%+ of our standard tamp actuator, maintain our high accuracy, and minimize the cost impact to our customer.

A second application required our system to compensate automatically for positional variability in labels on the web in the ‘non-feed’ or ‘cross-web’ direction.  In the vast majority of applications that require our precision application systems the die-cut material is provided with tight tolerance for position in the non-feed direction.  Our system, using precision drives and a finely tuned optical sensor is able to locate each label or adhesive component in the feed direction and then move that component to a precision location for pickup.  We do not normally need to adjust for positional tolerance in the non-feed direction.  However, this customer had a very special label constructed of multiple layers of materials that resulted in a +/-3mm positional tolerance of the label on the web in the non-feed direction.  Their placement requirement in that direction was +/- 0.5mm.  Therefore we were required to implement an additional axis of precision motion control so that we could scan the label in the non-feed axis and accommodate the variation in position.  The resulting module is our Sidescan Tamp module.  The Sidescan Tamp moves a standard precision material sensor along the required axis of the label or adhesive component, moves the Tamp to the correct position to properly align the vacuum chuck to the label for peeling, and then makes the correct offset move to properly align the label or adhesive component for placement onto the substrate.  All with only a minor increase in cycle time.  As a result our PL series applicators can incorporate up to three axes of precision motion to accommodate a wide range of material variations.

Other applications require placement of adhesive components onto planes that are not parallel to the plane on which the labels or adhesive components feed through our PL series systems.  When mounted in the standard orientation the PL series machines feed the labels or adhesive components on a plane that is parallel to the floor.  In this orientation the label or adhesive component is normally applied to a flat surface that is also parallel to the floor by moving the component vertically downward until it meets the surface of the substrate.  However, some applications require that the label be applied to a vertical surface which is perpendicular to the floor.  For this purpose we developed our RT90 Tamp Module.  The RT90 Tamp, restricted for use with labels of size up to 50 x 50mm, reorients the label or adhesive component after peeling it from the web to a vertical plane.  The RT90 Tamp can then extend to apply the label or adhesive component onto the correct substrate surface.  The RT180 provides another special actuation by flipping the label over.  In a typical application the label, after being peeled from the web, has the exposed adhesive surface facing the floor.  One customer presented us a requirement to apply a label to the bottom side of their component.  By rotating the RT180 Tamp Module 180 degrees we can reorient the label or adhesive component so that the exposed adhesive surface faces the ceiling.  From that point we can extend the RT180 Tamp to apply the component to the correct surface substrate or we can move the substrate to cause it to contact the exposed adhesive of the adhesive component.  Either way the customer gets the function that they needed and we, once again, rise to the occassion in providing specialized solutions to accessorize our standard PL series machines.

In support of a local junior high school Steve G. was requested to speak to a class of 7th graders in a Career Exploration class.  The presentation was made on December 4, 2008 with the title of ‘Automation Engineering’.  The following is a summary of the information provided to the class.

Slide 1: What is an Engineer?

Engineers solve problems.  It seems simple, but it’s not.  Engineers solve special problems using specialized skills and knowledge attained through higher education (university) and sharpened and improved by experience and application.

Slide 2: Engineering Fields

The primary, or most common, fields of engineering are Civil, Electrical/Electronics, Mechanical, and Industrial Engineering.  Civil engineers focus on building things like bridges, highways, dams, and other structures.  Electronics engineers develop electronic circuits and circuit boards.  Electrical engineers work with electricity in various ways such as working in power generation stations that provide the power for the lights in this classroom.  Mechanical engineers design and develop mechanical hardware such as parts of an automobile engine or mobile phone housings.  Industrial engineers focus on resources and allocation of those resources.  An Industrial engineer may work in a factory and needs to assess how many and what types of equipment are present and how many people are available.  The Industrial engineer determines the most efficient way to use the available resources to meet production schedules at minimal cost while delivering good quality.  There are many areas of specialization in engineering (a list was provided).

Slide 3: Education Requirements

Strong math and science capability are essential.  A four year university program is typical.  For students wishing to attain additional education there are Master’s and PhD programs available.  Students attaining PhD’s may wish to work as a professor at a university and teach the next generation of engineering students.

Slide 4: Other Requirements

Engineers are usually very interested in ‘How Things Work’.  Engineers must be Creative in solving problems.  Engineers require good communication skills, both verbal and written, to explain and advance their ideas.  Trustworthiness and Integrity are also important for engineering as they are with all careers.  Your opportunities for advancement are improved when you show yourself to have good integrity and be trustworthy.

Slide 5: My Engineering Field: “Industrial Automation”

Automation Engineering - A combination of Mechanical, Electrical, Computer, Industrial, and other fields of Engineering with a focus on developing automated methods of high volume and/or precision assembly machinery and processes.

Slide 6: Salary Info

A chart of a survey conducted by Automation.com in 2007 was posted for review by the students.

Slide 7 - 8: My Position - President and Engineer

Employees of small businesses often ‘wear many hats’.  My primary responsibilities are Engineering, Sales, and Project Management.  Other responsibilities include employee management, financials, and marketing.  My primary efforts involve working with the customer to understand the problem that they need to solve and working with our team to develop the best solution to that problem.  A quotation is provided to the customer that explains the solution and the customer, after asking questions, decides whether or not they will proceed.  Once a project has been ordered I work with our team to manage the project and communicate with the customer regarding our progress until the project is complete.  A short explanation of trade shows and how they work was also provided to the students in a discussion of marketing efforts.

Slides 9 - 13: Nautilus Systems, Inc and our Products

A brief overview of NSI, our PL100, PL165, and JAZZ Cell products was provided.  Included in the presentation were pictures of the equipment and videos (as posted on our website) of the PL Series Applicators and JAZZ Cells.  (Note:  7th Graders like video!)

Slides 14 - 18: Our Customers and Application Examples

In this section an overview of the customers we’ve worked with, the various countries where are systems are in use, and the types of projects that are typical for us was reviewed.  The students were educated about adhesive components and labels and the various uses for these items in products from virtually every industry.  Actual part samples for applications produced by NSI in 2008 were reviewed along with pictures and video of the machine solutions that were provided.

Slide 19 - 20: Things I Like and Dislike About My Job

A portion of the worksheet filled out by the students required discussion of likes and dislikes.  Likes included the opportunity to be creative and innovative, the wide variety of projects and industries where we work, the opportunity to make friendships with people from all over the world, the chance to constantly be learning new things and see new products, a chance to travel, and a sense of accomplishment.  Dislikes included global job outsourcing, free trade that is not fair trade, and some other demands that can be difficult to handle.

Slide 21: Summary

A word of advice to the student’s to choose a career based on finding something they enjoy.  A recognition that, for most people, more time is spent working each week than in any other activity so it is wise to find something that you enjoy and not to make salary the main criteria.  A few extra minutes were available for discussion of additional projects completed recently by NSI.  Each student received a customized sticky note pad with NSI logo info in appreciation for their interest, good questions, and good behavior during the presentation.  If all of America’s 7th graders are as focused as these kids our country has a bright future!

A recent customer purchased a PL100EPi Applicator to meet their very demanding application requirements. Though we received only our normal price, solving their problem actually cost our customer three times the price of our unit. How and why? Simply because before they tried our system, they were sold a ‘competitive’ system that really couldn’t meet their needs.

Our customer purchased a unit from a competitor based on claims of speed, accuracy, and reliability. This competitor used a very simple formula to make this sale. A focus on the number of machines they had previously sold and an impression that they were the only viable option for this type of application.

The system was delivered by our competitor to a third party provider of integrated custom automation solutions. To make a long story short, the competitive system never attained the performance that had been promised. Even with multiple visits by the competitor, over the course of SEVERAL MONTHS, to address the issues. Eventually this equipment caused a delay in shipment of a highly integrated and expensive custom automated assembly system. It also jeopardized the ability of our customer to meet their production schedules.

Finally, our customer searched for an alternative and discovered NSI solutions. In their first inquiries the customer had some very pointed questions regarding our systems in comparison to the issues experienced with the competitor. Nautilus Systems (NSI) was quick to point out the technical superiority of our applicator products and the engineered solutions that come standard with each of our machines. These solutions solve long-standing issues experienced by users of competitive systems.

This customer invested additional time and cost in requesting a demo and a personal visit to our facilities. Eventually this customer elected to purchase a PL100EPi system.

Four weeks later the PL100EPi Applicator, featuring our patented technology, and incorporating our closed-loop Encoder Package for extreme precision, was installed on their production line. The result was a machine solution running at MORE THAN TWICE the speed, with GREATER PLACEMENT ACCURACY, and operating in a HIGHLY RELIABLE manner. All of this at a LOWER PRICE!

The competitive system? It was placed on a pallet and wrapped in plastic with a future likely to be spent in the dark corner of a warehouse.

The lesson? Though some may claim greatness by virtue of past accomplishments, NSI is focused on ever improving and expanding our products. Not only does this strategy allow us to be the technology leader in our field, it will also lead us to be the sales leader. Successful installations throughout the U.S. and in more than a dozen countries around the globe are only the beginning.

If you’d like to know more, please take a look at our products, or better yet, give us a call!