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. This versatile unit
allows the use or non-use of the robot as well as
being relocatable to other machines.
Holinger Engineering Co, manufacturers 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 their 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's 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 etc, and the machine can send a
text message to an operator if it needs assistance.
“While 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,” Alan 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,” adds
Phil. “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.”
Phil says 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.
Inevitably there will be some companies left behind in
a changing market environment but those who have
welcomed the inevitability of change and embraced
this, will continue to grow and prosper.
OKUMA
8) Lathes are straightforward. However,
machining centres can also be
robot loaded. Use the correct robot
interface between the machine and
robot.
Automatic opening and closing of the
machine door is necessary and the
signals for this should be part of the
machine maker’s robot interface. Safety
trip-strips for auto-retract must be fitted
to the doors to avoid operator crush
injury from a door closure.
9) Determining the correct robot
generally comes down to...
a. Dexterity required.
b. The load capacity that included
the weight of the raw part, plus the
weights of grippers, jaws, additional
plumbing, switching and so on.
c. The reach of the robot.
d. The number of operations. For
instance, washing, measuring,
palletising and so on.
e. Whether the machine will remain
robot dedicated or not.
f. Service support.
A U T O M A T I C
R E I N VE S T M E N T
Businesses must be profitable in order
to fund reinvestment in themselves and
facilitate growth.
Robots and Automation are assets
that get lodged in the balance sheet
and depreciated until written down and
generally the annual cost is relatively
low each year.
The use of cost efficient robots for
repetitive tasks almost certainly gives
businesses a chance benefit in many
ways, the more obvious being:-
1) Outside normal hours, unmanned
operation.
2) The potential to apply human
resources from repetitive tasks into
creative endeavours.
3) The cost of labour generally
increases annually.
4) Profitability opens up growth for
new and future investment.
I F YO U A R E C O N S I D E R I N G P U R C H A S I N G A N E W M A C H I N E W I T H T H E V I E W
T O A D D I N G A R O B O T L A T E R I T WOULD PAY T O P U R C H A S E T H E N E C E S S A R Y
P R E P A R A T I O N S ( R O B O T I N T E R F A C E A N D A U T O D O O R O P E N / C L O S E A T
L E A S T ) A T T H E O U T S E T A S I T I S C O N S I D E R A B LY C H E A P E R T O D O S O A N D
W I L L P R O V I D E B E N E F I T S E VE N B E F O R E T H E R O B O T I S A D D E D .
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