Degating: How to cut small parts (washers) off the runner post molding?

[moldingppm]

Good Afternoon,

I'm currently running a job that makes a small washer, the customer uses a large quantity annually. The issue we're having is the part is small enough that we have to run an edge gate, no in-mold degating is possible. My question is, other than having someone stand there and cut the part off of the runner, is there any way we can kind of purchase a machine or come up with a way to quickly degate these post molding? It's labor intensive to have someone stand there and cut these parts, I'm hoping someone has an idea or knows of a company that makes machinery for making this easier.

Thanks in advance.

Mitchell

[Suhas]

Hi Mitchell,
Yes, you can build a fixture with a cutter. The operator puts in in there and the machine will do the rest. You can also use an end of arm tool and robot.
What is the material? That would be important since you can only cut some and can only punch some.
Regards,
Suhas

[iautry1973]

I would say it depends on the tolerances you are looking at as far as the gate vestige. I have run plenty of jobs we cut outside the machine with a robot. Depending on the size of the part and the tolerances you may need to look at fixturing. You can always put the part into a fixture then pick it back up after it is cut if the tolerances are tight. I ran a part through a router after degating using the robot once when the tolerance was super tight. Worked pretty good. So basically the answer is probably yes you could degate it with the robot. The only thing to look at is whether or not the ROI works versus a human degating it.

[moldingppm]

Thanks for the responses. Looks like we might be using tapered gates and a 2 stage ejection for this. I will let you guys know how it turns out.

For those that asked, material is ST-801. Tolerances on the OD aren't anything crazy, I think +/- .01