Automated sleeving machine for fluorescent lamp packaging

• Main Authors: Chua, Jeffrey P., Lee, Rachelle G., Tan, Dorothy C., Tiongson, Philip A., Uy, Tyrone K.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2002
• Subjects: Programmable controllers; Motion study; Time study; Electric controllers; Automatic control
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_honors/316
• Institution: De La Salle University

The fluorescent lamp was the first major advance to be a commercial success in small scale lighting industry since the tungsten incandescent bulb. Having observed the manufacturing floor of GE Lighting Philippines, the group came up with the idea of improving the packaging system by automating the process of inserting the lamps into the sleeves or cartons. The key method for doing this is the use of a pneumatic cylinder with a stroke that is the same with the length of the fluorescent lamp. The lamps roll freely from the accumulator and are singulated by folded metal sheets. Simultaneously, the sleeves are singulated by a metal sheet that is pushed by a double acting cylinder. The sleeves are opened by two half-diamond blocks when the cylinder retracts. When both sleeves and lamps are ready, the large double acting cylinder inserts the lamps into the opened sleeves. The process is done three at a time and the Sleeving Machine has an output of eight lamps per minute. By being the first to design and develop such a machine that can automate the sleeving process of fluorescent lamps in the Philippines, the implementation of the sleeving machine to the manufacturing floors would pose a big contribution to the lighting industry.