Excessive market dynamics, rising competitors resulting from globalization, but additionally demographic developments and the rising scarcity of expert employees, are presenting German manufacturing corporations with main hurdles. These adjustments significantly have an effect on the meeting course of because the final hyperlink within the worth chain.
One strategy to counter this variation is using so-called human-robot collaboration (HRC). Nonetheless, HRC programs are nonetheless related to excessive prices, each in cash and personnel, resulting from their planning complexity. There’s a want for easy and versatile strategies that allow corporations from many industries with all kinds of software boundary situations (product complexity, variance, portions, and so forth.) to arrange and introduce collaborative meeting workstations.
Analysis Venture SafeMate
Within the SafeMate analysis mission, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Schooling and Analysis (BMBF) within the “Improvements for the Manufacturing, Service and Work of Tomorrow” program, methods and ideas have been developed for the introduction and design of collaborative meeting workplaces. The main focus was on protected and accepted workplaces the place workers acknowledge a excessive profit. Along with famend German corporations equivalent to Lenze, Lufthansa Sky Cooks, Miele and Sennheiser, the Detmold-based firm Weidmüller was additionally a part of this analysis mission.
The Weidmüller Group is a world participant and specializes within the subject {of electrical} connection expertise and electronics. Along with its prospects, it’s shaping the digital transformation—with merchandise, options and providers for Sensible Industrial Connectivity and the Industrial Web of Issues.
With its merchandise, Weidmüller is predominantly lively in mechanical engineering, the method {industry}, energy era and renewable energies, transport expertise, constructing infrastructure and within the subject of machine manufacturing. The corporate has lengthy been concerned with the subject of Business 4.0. and, along with SafeMate, is concerned in different analysis collaborations.
When All the pieces was Executed by Hand
Till just lately, the meeting course of for electromechanical elements at Weidmüller was carried out utterly manually by workers on the meeting workstation.
As a part of Protected-Mate, a possible evaluation—carried out by the staff led by Weidmüller course of engineer Tobias Stuke—was to find out the person duties carried out by man and machine and thus create a task-optimal division of labor. Amongst different issues, it was discovered that robots are superb at performing the monotonous, repetitive and power-intensive duties of the position course of with out fatigue. And so they can achieve this with constant accuracy.
However it will possibly’t be performed with out people: people have particular abilities, for instance, in gripping and eradicating small components of various dimensions from a pile or field. They will acknowledge and type them higher. People are additionally superior to their robotic colleagues in relation to appropriate feeding and the next inspection course of.
Based mostly on these findings, the beforehand guide meeting course of was then partially automated in an preliminary SafeMate pilot software through the use of human-robot collaboration (HRC). The consequence was a hybrid meeting office wherein people and robots work in parallel. The monotonous and force-intensive duties are carried out by the robotic, whereas the cognitively demanding duties are carried out by the human.
Human-Robotic Collaboration
In collaborative robotics, people and robots can work hand in hand at one office. Because of the delicate management expertise, the robotic can work carefully with the human with out protecting fences. The appliance requires validation to make sure that hazards have been sufficiently minimized. This may be performed as a part of a measurement of drive and stress carried out by TÜVs, skilled associations, exterior service suppliers or independently by the integrator. Finish-of-arm instruments, equivalent to a gripper, will also be validated on this manner.
For the brand new hybrid office, for the meeting of electromechanical elements, such a cobot from the Danish robotic producer Common Robots (UR) has now been positioned in conjunction with the workers to work alongside them. First, the colleague assembles the connector parts. Then the cobot presses within the electrical contact parts, joins the connector housing and screws the connection contacts. The productiveness of your complete hybrid workstation is elevated by means of a collaborative robotic and the ensuing discount in intermediate steps or ready occasions within the meeting course of. The main focus of this partial automation is to alleviate the machine operator of time-consuming and monotonous intermediate steps and to attain a balanced division of labor between people and robots.
A Cobot with Zimmer HRC Gripper
Along with the choice of an acceptable robotic, an acceptable gripper was additionally required as a part of the workstation design. It is because gripping expertise is an elementary element of each robotic software. The HRC-02 gripper from the Zimmer Group, a gripper specialist primarily based in Rheinau, Germany, was discovered comparatively rapidly. Zimmer Group presently has the biggest portfolio of HRC grippers within the World. The chosen gripper is protected and harmonizes completely with the chosen UR robotic.
The HRC-02 all-electric servo gripper, specifically designed for MRK use, has no sharp edges and is constructed in such a manner that, with its rounded form on all sides, unintended snagging is nearly unattainable. As well as, the HRC-02 has a flexibly adjustable stroke and gripping drive, permitting it to grip rather more sensitively than a standard gripper.
These options paired with an industry-proven design present the utmost security for this mission. All HRC grippers from the Zimmer Group meet the excessive necessities of the safety rules in keeping with ISO/ TS 15066 (HRC normal) and are BG/ DGUV licensed.
Programming Made Simple
In Weidmüller’s SafeMate mission, one other focus was on with the ability to use the UR cobot effectively and flexibly on the new hybrid office. Subsequently, consideration was additionally paid to simple dealing with of the robotic.
The benefit of operation of the cobot was convincing, particularly together with the HRC-02 gripper. In any case, it’s no coincidence that each one Zimmer Group grippers can work completely with UR light-weight robots—as a UR+ associate, Zimmer Group presently shows the biggest portfolio of UR-compatible grippers on the UR+ web site.
The place beforehand elaborate programming work and sophisticated programming abilities have been required, the cobot from Common Robots and its Zimmer gripper are very simple to function. It’s managed or programmed straight via the robotic management panel, which is intuitively designed—akin to a smartphone app.
Elevated Productiveness and Satisfaction
The pilot use of the cobot in Weidmüller’s mechanical engineering division opens up new potentialities in effectivity and adaptability.
Because of this new, hybrid division of labor and the straightforward operability and simple set up of the clever robotic and its gripper, the electronics producer can now meet the rising scarcity of expert employees and international competitors a bit extra. Along with the rise in productiveness, there have been additionally necessary non-monetary successes, equivalent to ergonomic office optimization and common work reduction for workers.
For instance, force-intensive duties equivalent to urgent within the contact parts (“latching”) and monotonous duties might be handed over to the robotic. This excessive stage of worker acceptance was additionally achieved via a participatory implementation course of. Which means workers have been concerned within the change course of round their office from the very starting.
“A selected choice criterion for the Zimmer Group’s gripper was that, along with its technical options, the gripper already had the examined and authorized security for HRC programs, which implies that we have been already on the ‘protected aspect”’—within the truest sense of the phrase—for our gripping expertise mission,” mentioned Stuke.
It’s significantly necessary to the corporate that its workers profit from collaborative work. The cobots with their grippers are meant to offer reduction.
