Dovybavení CNC strojů duálním gripperem RG2

Gear manufacturing company Osvald Jensen decreases cycle time by 12 seconds using dual gripper from OnRobot

The Copenhagen-based company has increased its productivity on their CNC machines by retrofitting them with RG2 Dual Grippers from OnRobot. The grippers significantly decrease cycle times and allow for production to continue after operators have left the workshop.

COPENHAGEN – Many years ago, Sen. Everett Dirksen is reported to have said, “A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money.” Manufacturers looking to decrease the cycle times of robotic work cells might paraphrase Dirksen as follows: “A second here, a second there, and pretty soon we’re seeing real improvement in efficiency, throughput and profits.”

Seconds count in manufacturing, and for Copenhagen-based gear manufacturer Osvald Jensen, collaborative robots – or cobots – have been the solution for speeding up work and improving the machine shop’s performance and productivity.

Room for improvement with dual gripper 
Osvald Jensen uses cobots with the RG2 collaborative grippers from OnRobot to load and unload their CNC machines. The robots would load a part, wait for the process to finish, unload the part, and pick up a fresh one – a perfect application that worked well for the company. And yet, there was still room for improvement on this single gripper solution.

“OnRobot has developed a dual gripper solution, which compared to the single gripper, increases the productivity of the CNC machine simply by being able to handle two objects at the same time. We realized that with yet another cost-effective investment, we could improve our productivity even further,” says Christian Viereck, Head of Production at Osvald Jensen.

Cycle time decreased by 12 seconds
In a video documenting the cycle times of the single gripper and dual gripper from OnRobot respectively, it becomes clear just how big a difference a dual gripper can make to a production’s cycle time. Where the single gripper performs the task in 27 seconds, the dual gripper finishes after a mere 15 seconds – winning the company 12 seconds on every cycle.

So, by simply retrofitting their CNC machines with RG2 Dual Gripper from OnRobot, Osvald Jensen has increased productivity on their CNC machines significantly in a very cost-effective way.

No need for human operators to be constantly present
This is a promising prospect for the production industry, not only in areas with high labor cosst, but also in countries with a tight labor market. The flexible, fast, and affordable gripper is an investment that releases vast potential in the fleet of CNC machines a company already has installed.

Another benefit is that the RG2 can continue to work even without an operator being present. When the lights are out and the humans have called it a day, the cobot and the collaborative grippers keep going, pushing up productivity considerably. The only thing the operators have to do is load the magazines with raw material.

Furthermore, installing cobots can help relieve workers from tedious and monotonous work, improve physical working conditions, and free up workers to spend time on more challenging tasks. An unexpected side benefit was that the CNC machines, since they now had a much more stable and repetitive operation, started to produce parts that were much closer to the ideal tolerances. The reason being that there was less variation in temperature, humidity, etc.

Quick ROI
At Osvald Jensen, the RG2 has had an impressive ROI.

“To stay competitive in a high-cost country like Denmark, and at the same time demonstrate that we are a modern company, we have decided to invest in technology that gives us the best return. We have invested a lot in our CNC machines, and with collaborative robots, especially the OnRobot Gripper, we can, in a very cost-effective way, automate them. Therefore, in 2015, we invested in our first OnRobot gripper and had a return on investment in less than three months,” Christian Viereck explains.

An accessible technology – also for smaller companies
Cobots, or collaborative robots, have spread across several markets in recent years. The food industry, health industry and manufacturers have discovered the many advantages of cobots and are using them in their various daily operations. With their simplified automation, safe and user-friendly application, and high flexibility, cobots are designed specifically to work alongside their human counterparts. In fact, they can offer a wide range of benefits to human workers, such as relieving repetitive or strenuous duties, lowering the risk of errors, and creating learning opportunities. This is accomplished through the high precision of the cobots, along with an easily maintained level of hygiene, and their ability to maintain a stable and uninterrupted work environment.

Part of their popularity is their accessibility, so even small business owners can implement cobots in their operations, since they constitute a comparably affordable investment. With their lightweight and compact design, they are easy to integrate and move around. The straightforward programming of the cobots makes it equally easy to deploy and redeploy them for new and different tasks.