FAMILY-OWNED DENTAL INSTRUMENT MANUFACTURER NICHROMINOX SEES 10 PERCENT PRODUCTION BOOST
Nichrominox, a family-owned firm in Lyon, France, has manufactured sterilization tools for dentists for 40 years and faces rising competitors from international locations with low labor prices. The corporate sought to automate a metal-folding utility with conventional industrial robots however quickly realized that they didn’t have the mandatory in-house sources to implement this and that the mission value was too excessive.
Nichrominox now makes use of 4 collaborative robots on three separate manufacturing traces to automate a bending cell, feed a CNC machine, and assemble merchandise alongside an operator. One cobot performs a punching operation on one press then turns elements on a shuttle desk and performs a bending operation on a second press. A second cobot is totally built-in with the CNC machining heart, saving time, enhancing the work high quality, and decreasing the chance of repetitive pressure accidents. Within the third line, an meeting station is run by an operator and a cobot working side-by-side in full collaboration with out the necessity for any extra security guarding. The operator prompts the cobot by making use of strain (via an built-in power sensor within the gripper), which makes the robotic simple to handle.
The cobots have been programmed by an in-house worker, Cédric Lefrancq-Lumiere. “I didn’t have any programming data however after solely two days of coaching, I used to be in a position to perceive and program the robotic. In the present day I solely want one or two hours to program a brand new job and I’m consistently enhancing this system to attain higher high quality and precision,” he says. Nichrominox noticed an ROI on the robots in 14 months and intends to maintain remodeling its manufacturing traces with extra cobots.
COBOTS BRIDGE THE AUTOMATION GAP FOR MEDICAL MANUFACTURERS
Collaborative robots or “cobots” are a brand new class of robots which can be bridging the hole between totally handbook meeting and totally automated manufacturing traces. This has turn out to be a essential aggressive benefit for small and mid-sized specialty medical system producers. Key advantages embody versatile deployment, protected operation alongside human employees, simple programming and implementation, and quick return on funding.
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