As Australia’s largest extruder and distributor of aluminium systems, with six manufacturing plants nationally, Capral’s products are used in offices, homes, shops, trucks, factories, ferries and more across the country.
With an ever-changing range of 6,000 unique aluminium profiles plus customisations, Capral faced major challenges trying to efficiently and safely sort, pick, pack and load orders for distribution to thousands of worksites.
Like an industrial-size game of Tetris, maximising loads, cutting waste, eliminating damage and accelerating distribution are pivotal to running a profitable manufacturing business.
Capral faced three primary challenges:
Using traditional manual methods, Capral sent out trucks with empty spaces and used surplus struts and packing materials. This resulted in more loads, wasted capacity and extra weight.
No shipment is the same. In addition to juggling thousands of shapes and profiles, architecturally designed cosmetic pieces have pristine finishes that need specialised packaging and careful positioning to protect them from scratches in transit and when offloading
Another challenge that complicated previous automation attempts was that shiny reflective surfaces can be invisible or error-prone with standard lasers. Accuracy is critical when pieces differ only in tiny specifications.
Capral had three primary business goals:
Having met the most demanding industrial automation challenges since 1985 – and pioneered AI-driven solutions for years before it became mainstream – the Applied Robotics team was more than ready to deliver the end-to-end solution.
The robotics, scanners and conveyors are all driven by a proprietary intelligent algorithm custom-coded by in-house engineers.
With the innovative Capral solution delivered in 2018, Applied Robotics Founder Dr Paul Wong was excited to deploy a solution far ahead of its time.
Define
Analyse processes to deeply understand the issues and objectives
Design
Develop a proposal detailing hardware, software and services
Prove
Create a proof of concept to demonstrate exactly how it will work
Build
Commission, test and optimise the cell in the production environment
Support
Deliver manuals, training and ongoing support and maintenance
Delivered a 50% freight volume reduction, which dramatically cut freight costs
More efficient packing processes accelerate distribution and increase capacity
Significantly reduced production costs and higher margins
With intelligent data-driven processes, Capral also have the data they need to feed into ordering, inventory and reporting systems to further optimise and streamline systems
Following the success of this project, Applied Robotics developed a robotic arm that works in a hostile 600℃ environment, holding and positioning hot aluminium bullets to shape raw materials
into precise profiles.
Capral’s previous mechanical arm was inaccurate, causing deformed cuts, frequent downtime and product errors.
We designed a flexible and heat-proof robotic arm to pick a hot billet from the oven, orientate it into position and guide it as the ram pushes the billet through the die (mould). We also deployed a second gripper to increase capacity and an enhanced version to cater to multiple die
diameters.
With a long-term partnership approach, Applied Robotics continues to work closely with Capral to optimise their manufacturing processes. This AI-powered technology makes it possible to automate all the processes in an aluminium extrusion factory.
By working with local success stories like Capral, our vision is to transform the Australian industry into a globally competitive manufacturing powerhouse by enabling onshore manufacturing, driving towards a more efficient, competitive and technologically advanced future.
