Advanced automation for injection moulding

Italian company Campetella Robotic Center turned to NSK linear guides and rolling bearings for its industrial robots that support plastic injection moulding processes.

Since the 1980s, Campetella has developed an innovative series of Cartesian robots and manipulators that have achieved extraordinary market success, particularly in the plastic moulding sector, thanks to their high performance and reliability.

“Our customers ask us to help them build high-productivity lines, where every element of the automation chain offers maximum optimisation, not just to guarantee high speed, but to ensure that it never breaks down or stops unexpectedly,” explains Elia Campetella. “This means that the starting point for our designers is the highest quality components and sub-systems, without which we, in turn, could not guarantee the highest quality and lowest total cost of ownership for our customers. For this reason, we ask our strategic suppliers, which include NSK, to adopt the same philosophy: quality and reliability must always be market-leading. This is the only way we can enhance the creativity of our designers who devise the many automation solutions for workpiece handling that we offer.”

For many years, designers at Campetella Robotic Center have been using NSK’s solutions for the realisation of Cartesian robots and many other handling systems. In particular, the company uses the latest generation of linear guides and roller bearings, chosen for their performance characteristics and absolute reliability.

Luca Marinangeli, purchasing manager at Campetella Robotic Center, says: “Thanks to years of successful collaboration and mutual trust, our designers have become autonomous in the selection of components, but they often converse with NSK technicians to investigate new solutions or identify new opportunities offered by the latest technological solutions. A good example is the K1 self-lubrication system, which has been tried and tested since its introduction to the market and has become standard in all Campetella-manufactured machines wherever major linear movements are required.

“The K1 system allows us to guarantee maintenance-free solutions for our customers, which is a great and appreciated added value in plants that must work 24/7, year-round. It’s not uncommon for our machines to use roller bearings that must work for millions of cycles at high speeds and with very heavy loads. Since using NSK’s K1 self-lubrication unit, the roller bearing block and linear guide have an operating life that exceeds that of other machine components, such as electrical cables, and never requires maintenance.”

Another feature highly appreciated by Campetella Robotic Center is the Gothic arch profile of NSK’s NH/NS guides, providing perfect straightness in long junction rails. The Gothic arch profile with four-point ‘X’ contact guarantees rigidity without losing the ability to compensate for small alignment errors. In addition, the four deep-groove rails are equipped with oversized balls to ensure maximum load capacity.

These are just a few of the many examples that show how the fruitful collaboration between two sector leaders contributes to their mutual success, fostering the development of a company that, in over 120 years of history, has never stopped facing new challenges for the benefit of its customers.