Worlds Fastest Face Shield Automation

Impetus to Invent

During COVID, Invent Automation stepped up to the challenge and created the world’s fastest, fully automated face shield machine. Creating one face shield every 1.8 seconds meant a lot of firsts in the industry. While many companies were experimenting with 3D printing and relying on labor-intensive solutions, Invent Automation made it possible to produce over 40,000 units a day. Our fantastic team and excellent support from our customer allowed us to implement several robots, unique material handling, machine vision, hot glue, ultrasonic welding, and a unique band-pulling system to make this happen. We will always be grateful that during COVID, we could do our part and rise to the challenge

Problem Solved

Moved from a completely manual assembly process to a fully automated system operated by one person.

Lessons Learned

At these speeds, the need for high-speed cameras to help with debugging was necessary. With so much going on in so many places, you have to be able to see problems during debugging to fix them.

What Was Unique

1.8 seconds is about as fast as you can run discrete based automation before you start getting into cam driven systems.

What Was Challenging

The hot glue strings were a real pain at these speeds but we came up with some inventive solutions to the problem.