Steve Lubeck today presented his educational session, Protecting robot-equipped injection molding machines from collisions with overhead cranes, to the Robots & Automation community during breakout sessions at the Long Beach Hilton during Molding 2018.
The educational session considers the potential safety concerns, downtime and costs faced when an overhead crane, such as the cranes that handle die changes at an injection molding facility, collides with equipment on the production floor. Many of these facilities have low overhead clearance, often have many “cells,” or clusters, of workstations equipped with costly load/unload robots packed as efficiently as possible in the available space, and each cell is monitored by a single operator. The presentation covers this and other similar scenarios that can be successfully addressed with the right combination of sensor technology and materials handling, controller, and communications expertise.
Steve Lubeck is the founder and President of Laser-View Technologies, a distributor and manufacturer of non-contact measurements sensors and systems, which includes the Crane Sentry® family of overhead crane collision and position monitoring systems, DIS Sensors, and Dimetix long-range laser distance sensors. Laser-View Technologies today has become a go-to source for non-contact sensor products, systems, and solutions in various industrial sectors including aerospace, automated storage and retrieval systems, automotive manufacturing, construction, engineering, materials handling, steel production, structural monitoring, and beyond. Steve is also involved in activities related to STEM education to develop future engineers through his participation in the Vex Robotics Competition (VRC) and is an officer of the non-profit organization, Brandywine Robotics.