packaged and quarantined. All this can be completed in one combined cycle and set up by a creative skilled operator who is likely to be tending three or four of these cells at once. One of Melbourne’s best known engineering jobbing shops, GW Kewder Engineering defeated the theory that long runs were required to justify robot installations. “The installation of robots enabled us to close down the night shift yet still run the machines overnight. Text messages are forwarded automatically by the machine to key personnel at any time of the night should a malfunction or out of tolerance occur,” says Kewder’s managing director, Derek Warrington. “Robots have allowed us to reduce times on batch runs of 200-250 complex components from two weeks to 4-5 days. We now have three trained robot operators and this is allowing us to upskill other operators. On some complex jobs it is taking us a day to set the operation up however on a repeat of that job the set up time is reduced to approximately two hours. The new technology is simple and flexible, freeing up personnel from repetitive jobs and increasing productivity and safety.” The third area of robotic technology or the middle ground has been developed by the entrepreneurial Belgian Company RoboJob BV which has developed a CE marked compact safe-cell that allows easy access, has an interactive simple programming system and generic part stockers. 18 May 2016 This versatile unit allows the use or non-use of the robot as well as being relocatable to other machines. Holinger Engineering Co, manufacturer of arguably some of the world’s finest motorsport gearboxes supplied to racing teams such as Aston Martin, Lamborghini, Porsche, BMW and Audi, has introduced a RoboJob Turn Assist robot to its latest Okuma Macturn 250 2SW multi-task machine. From stock billets to a finished product is achieved quickly and efficiently and for a company that receives urgent orders for sometimes 5–20 parts in a batch and specialises in small production runs, this set up provides the ultimate in flexibility. Holinger managing director, Alan Smith, says that the RoboJob takes minimal time to set up, has increased machine hours per day and can operate overnight without staff, lighting, and the machine can send a text message to an operator if it needs assistance. “Whilst we have experience with gantry loaders this new robot is relatively new to our shop so we are still learning. It is however proving to be flexible, economical, is quick to program, it can be easily moved to another machine and is ideally suited to lower production runs,” Mr Smith says. “This type of technology assists us with the effective placement of personnel often looking after more than one machine. It is allowing us to up-skill operators keen to take on this new technology and it has great occupational health and safety aspects related to the loading of billets and repetitive jobs. “With such advances in manufacturing technology many of Australia’s leading engineering companies are competing effectively on the world market,” says Mr Hayes. “Today we are experiencing two out of every five machines that Okuma delivers are multitasking (or multifunction) machines and one in every four multitaskers has a robot of some description attached to it,” he says. Mr Hayes adds that those who have seen the new Okuma Dream Site No.1 in Nagoya will know that Okuma gets the message that as a manufacturer its latest machines are built by the very latest Okuma machines and a host of automated and robotic technologies. He says it’s enevitable that some companies will be left behind in a changing market environment but those who have embraced the change and embraced this, will continue to grow and prosper. Watch RoboJob Turn-Assist in action https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dloWqMdWns C A S E S T U D Y
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