All businesses strive to be productive, flexible, nimble, and more adaptable to their respective markets in order to stay competitive in the business world. However, there are plenty of challenges that tend to hinder the achievement of maximum productivity and efficiency. Some of them include, labor shortages, high wage/salary demands and the recent increased demand for personalized products. To solve some of these issues, many manufacturers are turning towards robotic automation.

Universal Robots is in the forefront in providing a lasting solution when it comes to industrial automation through their game changing collaborative robots. Also known as cobots, these are flexible, easy to program and safe to operate. Unlike the traditional robots that were big and costly to buy and maintain, the cobots from Universal robots are relatively small but very efficient.

Cobots Integration in Plastic and Polymer Production

The collaborative robots from universal-robots.com may be used in all areas of plastic and polymer manufacturing, which include de-gating, PCB loading and unloading, picking and placing projects. Plastic and polymer production requires a high level of flexibility since the diverse materials require exclusive processing and temperature ranges.

Multiple degrees in production can also be automated even when there is no one round. The cobots eliminate employee exposure to the harmful noxious gases produced through the production of plastics and polymers. The collaborative robots also enhance staff safety as they guard the personnel at the manufacturing lines from plastic shavings and sharp objects. The robot arms additionally reduce repetitive paintings for employees whilst being able to expand their production talents.

Due to the different varieties of plastics and polymers with diverse production processes unto which plastics are made, production tends to change frequently. Cobots enable one to increase or lower the production of an organization.

Collaborative robots are lightweight, space-saving, and smooth to re-install to multiple tasks without changing the production layout. It is fast and smooth to deploy the robots to a different application which gives one the ability to automate almost any undertaking along with those with small batches and fast change overs in plastic and polymer manufacturing and other areas.

Case study of a Plastic and Polymer Company using Cobots

Trelleborg Sealing Solutions

Trelleborg Sealing Solutions is a plastic and polymer company from Denmark that wanted an effective solution to optimize manufacturing with orders ranging from a single unit to several million.

The Challenge Faced

The new CNC machines were taking more cubic meters than the traditional turning machines. As a result, optimizing processes with the aid of robots was a bit difficult.

The company even researched the market for appropriate robots for years but every single one they checked out needed a safety shield. This was unattractive due to the fact that it was hard to extend the actual production working at their manufacturing facility in Denmark.

To be ideally suited for the company’s necessities, the robot had to be easy to deploy and program so as to accommodate production with their orders ranging from a single unit to a series of several million.

The Solution

Trelleborg Sealing Solutions finally decided to use the robot arms from Universal Robots. A thorough risk assessment revealed that the cobots can run smoothly without the need of a protection shield which solved the limited space challenge.

Today, 42 UR robots perform machine tending tasks especially on CNC machines thus enabling them to achieve the exact agile production demanded by Trelleborg as the cobots are easily adjusted to new sizes.

Another great advantage of the collaborative robots is the fact that they permit one operator to keep a cell with eight CNC machines operating at a time where the maximum number was three. As a result the company has saved two workers per cell on each shift.

Conclusion

It is clear that the cobots offer the best solution in automation of plastics and polymer production. Companies such as Trelleborg Sealing Solutions are proof that cobots are very beneficial since they have enabled them to increase their overall productivity and profitability.