Injection Moulding

How does a Sprue Picker work?

  • Posted by Mark Serisier
  • September 7, 2018


How does a Sprue Picker work? A sprue picker is a piece of specialized machinery that picks the sprue out of an injection mould, usually as the parts are being ejected. The sprue picker can then drop the sprue to either the operator side or the far side of the injection moulding machine. Now let me tell you why this is important. Most, if not all injection moulding machines are designed to run fully autonomously. If any human intervention is required, then you must pay for the labour. If any labour is added, the price per product must go up. So, automating the picking of sprues is an invaluable addition to any moulding shop.

Most of the times, the sprue picker picks an empty sprue, retracts out of the way so the injection moulding machine can start It’s next cycle and throws the sprue into a waste bin or regrinder.

If however there are parts attached to the sprue still, you can program the sprue picker to transfer it to the operator side, where it can be put onto a conveyor or put into other robots such as sprue cutters.

The sprue pickers is actuated by servo motors. The arm shoots between the two platens when the mould is opening. The clamps grab the spur, and the arm begins to retract up out of the mould area. Once it is completely out of the way, the arm swings out to a pre-determined angle. The arm then extends again, which is especially helpful on wider injection moulding machines) and the clamp opens up releasing the sprue. The arm retracts and straightens up, ready to pick the sprue. All of this happens in a matter of seconds.

If you’d like to learn more about sprue pickers or if you have a plastic product that you think could benefit from automation, please don’t hesitate to contact us about a free 1-hour meeting.