Kit by Light
No human errors
Increased output
Reduce waste
Running the cutting room in a composite factory is difficult. Planning is complex, mistakes can have big impact on factory efficiency and the materials are expensive so waste needs to be minimised.
To help you, we have created a modular portfolio of Automated Kitting solutions. You can start with a simple system or go directly for high performance, all within the same software framework. Our Automated Programming provides a fully automated workflow: you upload the design and nesting files and the system takes care of the rest, no programming required.
Automated Kitting takes care of three steps: offloading (taking plies from the cutter), sorting (placing the plies into the right kit) and sequencing (ensuring all plies are in the order of laminating). It can handle prepreg, dry fibre or thermoplastic composite materials. Storage is in the Airborne dynamic buffer system, which is compact, fast and is accessible both for the robot and the human operator.
Kit by Light
The human operator can still be the right choice for offloading the plies. To support the operator, the Kit by Light system can be used. A light system indicates which ply to pick and in parallel the automated buffer system presents the right tray to place the ply. The algorithm takes care of the whole process and ensures that no mistakes are made. The system makes life of the operator easier, increases speed and makes the process more flexible without mistakes.
How Kit by Light works
Composites ply kitting just got faster and more efficient with Airbornes Kit by Light in the cutting room. Airborne cutting, offloading, sorting and sequencing workflow automation, is full digital controlled to guarantee a rapid return on investment by:
- 100% quality control → Zero mistakes
- Combination of parts into nests → Save materials
- Efficiency on the total process → More output per cutter and FTE
- Automated Programming → Flexibility
Thanks to the proprietary Kitting Algorithm and the different hardware options, cutting rooms now have an easy-to-use equipment to improve material efficiency by mixing up parts in the nest, without mistakes and with increased output.
Composites parts manufacturers are able to fully optimize the material use and to achieve up to 20% saving on material spent, depending on their current “nesting”, and the operator time to make composite plies kits can be reduced by up to 50%. Additional cost saving is achieved through better quality control.
Automated Kitting
If you want to maximise your output and the size of the plies that can be handled, have look at our high performance Automated Kitting systems that transfer the plies into fully sequenced kits. These systems are equipped with our Automated Ply Placement technology, which is developed to handle delicate composite plies, fast and robust.
Interested in finding out more?
Automation of the cutting room is not done overnight. Airborne can help you analyze the bottlenecks, inefficiencies, & waste, to increase the throughput and yield of your cutting room and boost your operational efficiency.
