A leading Canadian-based steel products manufacturer approached DTI in need of a solution to preassemble their wide range of steel brackets with nuts and bolts for shipment with their products. The customer specified that while they wanted to maintain the use of a human operator, they did not want any physical handling of the nuts or bolts.

DTI's team came together and formulated a proposal to automatically isolate one (1) nut at a time and present it for pickup using a custom DTI 4000 Nut Presenter system. Along with the presenter, we designed a DTI 5000 Automatic Screwfeeder with drive to depth and custom barrel and collets to automatically feed and drive the bolts into the presented nuts to a predetermined depth every time. Lastly, a DTI 400 Linear Workarm was added to ensure that each bolt was driven perpendicular to the nut in order to eliminate the chances of cross-threading.

Once both the DTI 4000 and DTI 5000 systems had been designed and built, our team strategically mounted each component, including the linear workarm, onto a shared baseplate to make the system an "all in one" work station. The customer's operator would simply place the bracket into the custom-designed parts nest with one hand while a nut was presented below said part. The operator then utilized the DTI 5000 Screw Feeder mounted to the linear workarm with their other hand to guide the screwfeeder into place, activate the tool to drive the bolt to depth, remove the completed assembly and repeat.

Upon final inspection of the completed machine and testing by the customer themselves here at our DTI facility, everyone was thrilled with the final product and outcome. The customer has seen great increases in productivity, improved ergonomics, and quality assurance in their final assembled parts.

Please call 1-800-627-3674 or browse our website for all of your automated fastening needs. Design Tool, Inc. is sure to be able to create a custom-tailored solution for your very own success story in automation.