‘Cobots’ rack up the benefits at Etalex

Installing a Universal Robot to pick metal parts from a press brake solved several automation headaches at Canada-based Etalex, a manufacturer of shelving systems that had no room for safety guarding in front of the press and needed a flexible user-friendly robot able to safely handle the pick and place tasks in a high-traffic area. The UR10 robot was up to the challenge.

When entering the 300,000 sq ft production hall at Etalex, the Universal Robot UR10 can be seen loading metal parts of various shapes and sizes to a large press brake. Compared with the other 25 robots in operation, all placed behind sturdy safety fencing, the Universal Robot application is an unusual sight. The UR robot belongs to a new breed of robots dubbed collaborative robots (‘cobots’) as their built-in force control limits the force at contact and does not cause bodily harm, enabling them to work alongside employees. Unlike more traditional industrial robots that normally stay bolted in one spot, the lightweight UR robots can also be quickly moved and reprogrammed for various production tasks.
“We needed a flexible automation solution that could be used for 10 different production cycles,” explains plant engineer Jean-Francois Rousseau. “Since I only have 6 ft of space in front of the press brake, it was important that I could run this application without safety caging around it.” Before the arrival of Etalex’s new robot colleague, an employee would manually tend to the press brake 8 hours a day. The manual tasks have now been reduced to an hour per day spent on inspecting the quality of each pallet and changing the coils, resulting in an estimated ROI of about 12 months.
For further information www.universal-robots.com

Mobile metrology

Bowers Group has launched its new ‘Mobile Metrology Centre’ offering on-site customer demonstrations of a range of metrology equipment.
The mobile centre will travel around the UK showcasing optical inspection systems that include the Baty Venture Vision System and the Sylvac Scan optical measuring machine. Also on display and available for demonstrations are the Accretech Surfcom Nex and a Rockwell hardness tester, along with the Trimos V5 height gauge. In addition, customers will have the chance to see a range of Bowers bore gauges and Sylvac Bluetooth hand tools.
For further information www.bowersgroup.co.uk/mmc

Staff save KMF £0.53m

This year is year seven of the Productivity Share Scheme (PSS7) run by KMF Precision Sheet Metal. The scheme pays out an annual bonus to any employee who spots an opportunity for cost saving within the KMF Group. It concentrates on the seven key areas of waste: over-production, inventory, transport, process, idle time, operator motion and quality.
A total of 194 employees contributed to the cost-saving scheme this year, resulting in total PSS7 savings for the KMF Group of £530,589.26.
PSS7 is also unique in that it is the first-time KMF Precision Sheet Metal has extended this project across the group to include KMF Precision Engineering. This year’s taster scheme resulted in £31,793.20 worth of savings from 30 contributors. Since 2013, the productivity share scheme has saved KMF over £1.8m and significantly increased efficiency and productivity within the company’s sheet metal fabrication service.
For further information www.kmf.co.uk

Angela Merkel pays a visit to Schunk

Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel visited the Schunk pavilion at the recent Hannover Messe exhibition and learnt about the future of smart production. She looked on while the managing partner/CEO of the family-owned company, Henrik Schunk, presented smart gripping modules that enable direct human/robot collaboration (HRC).

In other news, the company has received the Hermes Award for its Schunk JL1 co-acting gripper, the world’s first intelligent gripping module for HRC that directly interacts and communicates with humans. “The JL1 is a decisive step on the way to highly flexible handling scenarios for Industry 4.0 and, therefore, for smart production,” says Schunk. It was the first time in the history of the Hermes Award that the trophy has been awarded for a gripping module.
For further information www.schunk.com

Growth drives Filtermist investment

Oil mist collector manufacturer Filtermist has invested in an ABB robot for its welding department as part of the company’s continuous improvement policy. The investment follows sustained global growth which saw Filtermist’s sales increase by 23% last year.
The robot has been installed to TIG weld internal drums and outer cases. Here, cylindrical steel blanks are positioned on a turntable inside a dedicated welding cell, and the robot applies the weld while the table rotates.
For further information www.filtermist.com