Description:
Mechanical Robot ArmInnpro handling bottles
Painting application
multiflexible board handling
Fande screw application
Mechanical robot arm
1.Robot handlesmicroscopically small parts
Modern hearing aids are becomingsmaller and smaller so that you can barely notice them nestling insomeone’s ear. This makes great demands on precision in production.The hightech hearing aid manufacturer Oticon now uses robots fromUniversal Robots to handle parts that are just a millimetrelong.
Oticon has been using robot technologyfor the last ten years, but the innovative trend towards almostinvisible hearing aids means that very small parts have to bemanufactured and assembled.
The robot is securely fitted to theinjection moulding machine and can move over the mould and pull upthe plastic items. This is done using a specially designed vacuumsystem which ensures that the sensitive items are not damaged.
Oticon also uses the robot for adifferent task in the foundry where the suction tool is replacedwith a pneumatic gripping tool used for handling more complex castparts. The robot works in cycles of 4-7 seconds.
“Parts for modern hearing aids areoften around one millimetre in size, so we need a solution that isable to draw small parts out of a mould. It’s impossible to do thismanually, ” says Arne Oddershede, who supervises the maintenanceunit at one of Oticon’s manufacturing plants.
The large two- and three-axis robots,which Oticon used in the past, were no longer up to the task.Movements that only go in and out and up and down are not goodenough.
“If a small part is in a mould, forexample, you may have to tilt it, ” says Lars Gasberg, SalesManager at Armiga, the system integration specialist thatdistributes Universal Robots’ products.
2. Larger range, smallerproduction runs
Another challenge associated with Oticon is that the company isoffering more and more variants and models but in smallerproduction runs, which have naturally been manufactured in the mosteconomical way possible.
“We have switched to Universal Robotsbecause
we wanted a more flexible solution which is also financially viablefor smaller production runs. It’s important that the robot iseasily accessible and designed in a logical way, as well as beingeasy to reprogram. Specialists are required where traditionalrobots are concerned, but with this robot all our technicians areliterally able to take the robot and show it the movement pattern,” Arne Oddershede says.
It only took one day to install therobot for its new task in Oticon’s foundry where it handles verysmall parts such as wax filters measuring no more than onemillimetre, if that.
3. Robot expands productioncapacity
Every night a robot from UniversalRobots works diligently and completely unmanned next to a millingcentre at the Thiele tools company. In this way Thiele has nowmanufactured many more small series without additional personnel orhaving to buy more machinery.
The global financial crisis meantseveral challenges for Thiele and most other small and medium-sizedcompanies. In order to increase productivity, the company was onthe lookout for new business areas and is therefore now alsoinvesting in milling small series. Theeconomic situation meant that Thiele wasunable to employ additional employees or buy new machinery.
Automation turned out to be thesolution: when manual single production finishes in the day shift,the robot is placed next to a milling centre and runs an unmannedproduction of small series at night. It relieves employees frommonotonous handling work so that they can carry out far morechallenging tasks instead.
4. No need for a safetyshield
The robot also carries out quality assurance using an imageprocessing system developed by the distributor Faude and integratedinto the Universal Robots solution.
There was no need for Thiele to makedesign changes in order to implement the automation solution:Universal Robots has had its industrial robot certified so that itcan work right next to humans without an additional safetyshield.
The robot solution was developed andintegrated in just four weeks. Since then the system has runwithout problems.
5. New perspective onindustrial robots
Universal Robots is also solving aclassic dilemma for smaller companies.
“A small craftsman’s business can’tjust buy a robot with standard tools. It needs an individualsolution suitable for the company’s environment and special workingrequirements. Until recently the price of robot systems has beentoo high for them, although Universal Robots’ lightweight robot ata third of the price for similar solutions gives smaller companiesa whole new perspective on industrial robots, ” explains DieterFaude from the distributor Faude.
about Thiele: Thiele is a classicsmall tools manufacturer that develops individual solutions fordesigning processing, testing, measuring and leakage testingequipment and manufactures parts in CNC controlled machiningcentres. The company has around 10 employees and primarilymanufactures individual parts and small production series forindustry. Its customers are mainly companies within the automobileindustry, aeronautics and space technology and plasticproduction.
