- Industry: Tooling Systems Manufacturer
- Location: Pune, India
- Application: Machine Tending and Pick & Place
- UR Cobot Model: UR5
Requirement:
- Replace bigger robots that were complicated to use with light weight collaborative robots that are easier to manage
- Lower dependency of skilled workforce due to shortage of manpower
- Automate assembly lines to increase productivity
- Introducing night shift working for more productivity
OUR CLIENT IS ONE OF THE WORLD’S LARGEST PROVIDERS OF COMPREHENSIVE METAL CUTTING SOLUTIONS FOR MILLING, STATIONARY TOOLS, HOLEMAKING AND TOOLING SYSTEMS. The production team was facing dire scenarios due to covid restrictions and wanted to utilize the skilled workforce for productive work. The urge to lower dependency of skilled workforce from the unskilled work, the production team decided to automate their assembly lines with Cobots.
Cobots would serve as a replacement to bigger robots in one unit and will help maximize utilization of scarce human resources in another unit by doing unskilled work like pick and place.
Plan was to use the available resources in other productive work where human skills were required and introduce cobots for the unskilled work.
Challenges:
- Replicating the human ability of sorting
- Matching the production speed
- Accommodating the robot’s movements into allotted space
Since the shift was from manual to machine, the matching of inserts to tray had to programmed. Plus, the speed was to be matched. To match the production requirement a unique end-of-arm (EOA) was required to pick up 4 inserts at the same time & drop it at the output tray in an organized fashion. The transfer rate or speed was very high in this case. Also, there was space constraint. Designing the entire machine platform (with the above requirement) in the allotted space by customer was a challenge.
Achievements:
- Doubled Productivity in ≤ 9 months of ROI: From 1000 per hours to 2400 per hour output
- Lowered Manpower Dependency: 3 additional human workforces saved per day with 2 automations
- Tracing Production output through System enabled reports
- Flexible work timings: Night shift working introduced for Cobots along with data capturing
KEY VALUE DRIVERS:
- Product traceability
- Zero Dependency on skilled manpower
- Double Productivity
- Easy to learn & teach programming to the team
Highlight of the Project:
Installation and commissioning completed in only 10 days
Testimonial:
Cobot application is very easy and user friendly. Anyone can work with same. Programs are simple and easy to manage that operator can handle or edit by himself.
Our pick and place application has increased productivity by 50% and manpower savings is achieved.
We can run the machine unattended for complete week and achieve good productivity.
Very fast installation and commissioning by Patvin. Thanks to Patvin team for introducing UR Cobot and for good support.