Neal Andrews and Steve Cooper met while working as engineers for Hewlett-Packard. In 2000 they launched their own firm. Today Andrews-Cooper has offices in Tigard, McMinnville, and Corvallis, Oregon. More than 20 engineers provide product design and tooling and automation for companies such as Philips Medical, Hewlett-Packard, Oregon State University, Trimble, Grass Valley, Welch-Allyn, HemCon Medical Technologies and Upsite Technologies.
The engineers at Andrews-Cooper have more than 120 years experience in the product design and tooling and automation industries, and have completed hundreds of project cycles.
You can see some of the projects we completed last year by downloading and reviewing the PowerPoint: A-C Tooling and Automation 2011.
Ball Load & Press Tool Read Case Study
The customer originally developed this product with six chambers, each containing one metal and one plastic ball. This tool is a manual bench-top tool designed to load the two balls into each chamber in the correct order and presses them to the required depth all in one motion.
High Volume Chip Programming Tool Read Case Study
This tool programs computer chips mounted to a thin film. The chips are loaded into the tool on a reel and are programmed to pass through a four-pin pogo connection ten at a time. Because the chips are small and spaced very close together, alignment of the chips to the pogo block was critical.
Film Stake Tool Read Case Study
This tool stakes a thin film to the top of a molded plastic part. The film is then stripped and cut from a source reel. Because of space constraints, narrow grippers are used to place the film in the staking position. The plastic parts are manually loaded onto a shuttle, which is pushed into the staking position and a two-hand safety system is used to initiate the process.
Pin Alignment Tool Read Case Study
This tool positions two pins very accurately relative to a feature on the product. The pins are manipulated manually using micrometers and a vision system and glued in place using a UV cured ink.
Filter Stake Tool
This tool heat stakes four filters onto a molded plastic part. The four filters are cut from large rolls all at the same time and are picked and placed using a vacuum pick head. A custom stock feeder was used to feed the filter material. The plastic parts are manually loaded onto a shuttle. The shuttle is pushed into the staking position and a two-hand safety system is used to initiate the process. Two additional tools of similar complexity needed to be designed and built in the same four month period. The customer did not have time to create a formal spec and send it out for the normal bidding process. In one short meeting, we were able to gather enough information to provide a budgetary proposal. We started to project right away and complete all three tools on time.
High Volume Adhesive Dispense Tool
This tool is a high volume, fully automated assembly tool that utilized three assembly bases the customer had in stock. Our role was to design, fabricate, and assemble twelve stations and integrate the entire tool. It has six adhesive dispense stations, two pick and place stations, two vision inspection stations, a part identification station, and laser scanning inspection station.
Pick & Place Tool
This station picks a single part from a bowl feeder and places onto a thin film material. It is one of many stations on a high volume assembly tool. The customer developed the first generation of this station but needed help with hitting the cycle time and accuracy specifications. We redesigned the station to attain both.
Punch & Pick & Place Tool
This tool punches parts from a thin film, picks them from the die, and places them onto a plastic part. The parts are loaded into the tool on a reel, and advanced using a servo with a sprocket drive roller. Eight punched parts are placed onto one plastic part to complete a cycle. Cycle time was not critical to the client, but cost was. This drove a number of design decisions like punching and pick and placing one part at a time instead of eight.
Seal Assembly Tool
This fixture places a seal onto a plastic part with adhesive on it. The fixture ensures proper alignment of the seal to the plastic part and applies a firm, even load around the seal to ensure a good bond between the parts.
Adhesive Dispense Tool
This tool uses a robot to dispense adhesive in a precise pattern onto a molded plastic part.
Reel to Reel Flex Measurement Tool
This tool uses an ultra-precise laser and motion system to measure the distance between two planes. It incorporates a reel to reel flex handling system, precision laser, vision system, and two-axis motion system with a 1 micron repeatability.
Test Platform
We co-developed this test platform with the customer, who was resource limited. It is used for R&D and has a precision XYZ motion system. Our role was to design, assemble, and integrate the controls hardware, a walk-in safety enclosure, and 6-up fluid delivery system.
Medal Press
This is an automated military ribbon manufacturing tool. It has a punch press station and forming station.
Liquid Fill Tool
This tool was developed to precisely fill a product with four different liquids. The system is made of a recirculation cart and filling station.