Our client is a company from Liège region (Belgium), manufacturer of components for the aeronautical sector. Active in an ultra-competitive sector, our client wishes to remain anonymous in order to maintain their technological lead.
The Technical & Production Manager : « In order to meet the requirements of our aircraft manufacturer customers, we had to increase our productivity and reduce our costs. It is with this objective that we contacted ARMIN to study the the automation of an OKUMA GENOS lathe. I must admit today that the result has exceeded our expectations.
The challenge was high because we wanted to automate 250 references with very different dimensions (between 150 and 600mm long) and a very short cycle time : 5 minutes for two operations with a turning operation. We needed a robust, flexible and efficient system and above all a simple way to supply the parts to the robot. The traditionnal supply solutions in racks did not suit us, out of the question to have 2 hours of setup between each series !
The solution, even revolution, was proposed by ARMIN with their Bin Picking system by 3D Vision integrated on their M20 Series Compact cell. Thanks to this technology, no need to prepare the parts, they remain in the trays of the previous workstation. The robot, with its 3D camera, locates the parts and loads them into the machine. It's a continuous cycle !
The collaboration with ARMIN was a real pleasure from start to end ! It was our first robot and the ARMIN team was constantly attentive to our needs and suggestions. By our side "before, during and after", we could count on them at all stages of this exciting project !
This automation is a success. Startup was smooth and the solution is reliable. We have no unexpected stops and our reject rate is 0 ! We have doubled the productivity by operators because they can now operate a second machine simultaneously. The productivity of the automated machine has increased by 35% compared to manual loading. It's simple, the return on investment of this robotic cell is 7 months. Barely installed, we ordered for a second identical cell to equip our MAZAK 250 MY. Our second robot arrives next month.
To date we have trained 3 operators and they are delighted. They appreciate the ease of use and they realize that they keep the good part of the work, the one with added value. The robot now takes care of repetitive tasks. »
