Case perspective of cooperative robot

Intelligent officer of Danish Youao robot industry

Project background

Beijing Beiqi Lear Automobile System Co., Ltd. mainly provides supporting facilities for automobile enterprises, including seat system integration for Beijing mercedes benz c-class passenger cars and SUV-GLK, new generation E-class cars, Saab and C50 series cars owned by Beijing Automobile.

As an automobile supplier, BAIC Lear attaches great importance to product development and design capabilities, constantly improves production efficiency and product quality, and is committed to providing users with reliable products and solutions.

In recent years, with the upgrading of industrial automation, the production of automobile parts requires higher precision, efficiency and reliability. Therefore, BAIC lear corporation has been considering using cooperative robots to replace some manual operations, so as to improve the automation of production lines and enhance the company's market competitiveness.

Project challenge

As an important part of automobile seat production, tightening the screws on the seat is an extremely important but repetitive and boring job. Production line employees repeat the same actions all day, and it is easy to feel monotonous. Keeping the same working posture for a long time will do harm to employees' health and affect production efficiency.

solution

Considering the situation of the production workshop comprehensively: the installation space of the production line is limited, and the overall use cost of traditional industrial robots is too high, BAIC Lear finally chose Youao robot.

Youao robot can not only meet the requirements of automation, but also be economical in terms of comprehensive use cost. Compared with the traditional robot, Youao robot is light and compact, saves space, is easy to be redeployed in multiple application stations, can run without changing the production layout of the production line and isolating with safety fences, and can work cooperatively with the employees of the production line.

At the same time, it has the advantages of simple setup, reliable operation and smooth user experience, thus greatly shortening the integration and debugging cycle and reducing the project risk.

Even if the employee has no programming experience, Youao's patented technology allows him to set up and operate the cooperative robot quickly, and it only takes a few minutes to master how to start and stop the machine and write programs for it. Moreover, working with robots can greatly reduce the work intensity and pressure of employees and make work more interesting.

At the same time, the role of the production line employees who were originally responsible for this part of the work can also be changed-from operators to robot dispatchers, they can carry out production work with higher added value, and factories can arrange their work according to the needs of different production lines, which makes the staffing more flexible and further enhances the company's market competitiveness.

In 20 18, the global sales of Youao cooperative robots exceeded 25,000 units. To commemorate this important milestone, Youao presented a limited edition gold robot to lucky partners in all regions of the world. Beiqi Lear is one of the most important partners of Youao Robot in China. Youao Robot awarded Beiqi Lear China the only Youao cooperative robot gold edition.

In the process of Beiqi Lear's transformation and upgrading of automated production, Youao cooperative robot is very honored to participate in it. As one of the leading enterprises of collaborative robots, Youao Robot will continue to strive to achieve collaborative innovation for users with future vision and provide a common application ecosystem. In the future, Youao will continue to adhere to the concept of "helping users realize automation and simplifying repetitive industries" and help enterprises realize the transformation and upgrading of industrial automation.

In addition to car seat tightening, UR also provides various torque tightening application solutions.

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brief introduction

Battech introduced four UR5 cooperative robots into the injection molding production line, mainly responsible for handling, palletizing and clamping goods for inspection. The flexible arm and programming ability of UR cooperative robot are very suitable for the production line which needs complex ergonomics. It has successfully saved more than 35% of the labor cost for Batech, solved the serious shortage of work caused by environmental impacts such as production line noise, and greatly reduced the potential on-the-job disaster risk of the factory. At present, the production process of Ba Tai Qi 1 1% is assisted by UR cooperative robots. Its high mobility not only brings more space use benefits to the factory, but also helps the company to maintain the flexibility of operation and strategy formulation, so as to adjust the production line in real time according to the small and diverse production needs of customers, provide high-quality customized products and optimize the overall competitiveness of the company.

challenge

For more than ten years, Batech, a plastic injection manufacturer, has been actively researching and optimizing the technology of plastic mold industry, and is committed to providing high-quality products and serving many large domestic and foreign enterprises such as Wufeng, Xingqiao Technology and well-known European furniture retailers. Through the introduction of automatic production equipment, Ba Tai Qi expects to continuously achieve the goal of stable quality and mass production expansion, and provide more comprehensive process services for customers' small and diverse customization needs.

Ba Tai Qi initially introduced large-scale automatic production equipment into the production line. However, large-scale industrial automatic machine tools are accompanied by risks such as noise, huge installation space, safe distance setting, difficulty in recruiting talents, and serious shortage of workers, which makes it difficult for enterprises to cope with the higher demand for output flexibility due to the increase in output. Therefore, Ba Tai Qiqi hopes to fill the talent gap by introducing cooperative robots that can flexibly adjust the process and have low security risks. At the same time, colleagues also hope to redistribute the human resources of the production line through the characteristics of man-machine cooperation, optimize production efficiency, reduce the risk of occupational injuries and create a more friendly and safe working environment for employees.

solution

At present, Ba Tai Qiqi has introduced four UR5 cooperative robots in the processes of handling, palletizing, picking up and releasing goods. UR cooperative robot can replace employees to work in an environment full of huge noise and large industrial automation machines, helping Ba Tai to save more than 35% of labor costs and solve the urgent needs of high turnover rate and manpower shortage caused by the working environment.

After risk assessment, UR cooperative robot can work with employees without protective fence. In the past, when packaging products, we had to rely on pure manpower to sort out and pile up the products, and then bend down and put them in the box. In the long run, it would easily lead to physical fatigue, joint and waist discomfort of employees. By using UR cooperative robot, Batech employees get rid of highly repetitive work and reduce the risk of occupational injury caused by long-term labor. Moreover, it only takes about 1 hour for workers to learn simple troubleshooting. More than 80% employees have experience in operating cooperative robots. UR cooperative robot makes employees change from production executors to supervisors. The company can also flexibly adjust the manpower according to the workflow settings to improve the efficiency of the production line.

UR cooperative robot with+-360 free angle of each axis can easily imitate ergonomics and flexibly adapt to the needs of multiple production lines. In the case of packing operation, because the radian and placement position of plastic products are not fixed, the finished products can only be placed in the packing box at a special angle. Once the angle is wrong, it is likely to lead to product collapse, extrusion and other damage. The built-in safety system of UR cooperative robot can protect the safety of products during packing, greatly reduce the probability of damage, and give consideration to safety and speed. The workload of two boxes and one tray can be completed in 20 minutes, and the same action may directly crush the product if it is replaced by an industrial robot.

Moreover, UR cooperative robot is easy to program and install, with a large number of modular programs built in, which helps to improve the efficiency of program setting and can be easily integrated with other automation equipment. A cooperative robot can complete detection, classification, palletizing and other links. Battech uses UR5 to cooperate with the existing visual sensor of the production line, and the robot takes the plastic storage box to the sensor to complete the yield detection, and then directly sorts and palletizes it. Companies no longer need to make room for automated machines with different functions. With the gradual expansion of production capacity, Batech effectively simplified the automatic production process by using UR cooperative robots, and increased the use efficiency of factory space. The company's resources can be more focused on product research and development and technical improvement, creating a virtuous circle of company growth.

Project archives

Name: Canada Example Electronics Company

Products: speakers and subwoofers

Industry: Speaker industry

Application: polishing

Objective: To solve a lot of manual labor caused by repeated polishing in production and improve production efficiency.

Key value drive: robots must be as precise and flexible as people.

Let's take a look at the details of this case with UR, a man-machine cooperative robot expert:

Case background:

Paradigm Electronics, a Canadian speaker manufacturer, made a signboard "Midnight Cherry" on the chassis, which was loved by many users. However, in the actual production process, in order to make patterns, the process is very complicated, each layer of paint should be coated with multiple layers of paint, and at the same time, it needs a lot of physical labor, and it is not easy to find someone who can complete the operation. After communicating with many skilled people, Paradigm Electronics realized that they need to use robots that can be as flexible and accurate as humans.

Challenge:

Through a lot of research, Paradigm Electronics realized that cooperative robots could replace this workstation, and immediately did their homework and inspected several different robot manufacturers. In the application scenario of polishing, we should not only consider the robot that can complete the task, but also consider the cost-effectiveness: that is, all (direct and indirect) costs should be included in this project to assess the project recovery cycle.

Solution:

Paradigm Electronics uses UR 10 cooperative robots to make robots and people work in the same working environment. They work in parallel, so that human-computer interaction can be carried out safely. There is a close cooperative relationship between them.

The tasks of grinding, polishing and uniform sanding all require very special and usually meticulous contact. A universal robot with force control (as part of its programming structure) can do this, which can provide flexible solutions and automatically adjust its position to achieve the expected force. The mechanical arm can exert a specific force on its surroundings (such as the workpiece). This is a valuable function that can be provided by other manufacturers as an additional technology. But it is the standard configuration of Youao.

Advantages:

As a new production tool, UR man-machine cooperative robot can save users time, manpower and hardware costs in practical use. Paradigm Electronics can recover its cost in only 14 months.

Deployment time is greatly shortened:

In fact, Paradigm Electronics also uses another kind of robot in the production process: Cartesian robot. They need a large number of protective devices of safety protection personnel, and it is impossible to realize the real cooperation between workers and robots. At the same time, they must be equipped with all necessary physical protection means to make the work unit safe for human beings. In addition, its installation and start-up cycle is very long, and the debugging of Cartesian robot takes 5 months. However, it only takes more than a month from receiving the Youao robot to installing and activating it.

Integrated force control function:

Another important reason why Paradigm Electronics chose Yoo Robot is that it has the force control function. In the process of polishing, if the force is too large, the heat generated on the surface and the effect will be greatly reduced, and Youao robot can work according to the force control, so it is a huge advantage. Of course, in order to achieve the final production effect, the technology of force feedback system can also be used, but it is not cost-effective, and the price of this whole system is sometimes worth a whole robot.

Easy to program and use:

Another surprise for users is that the programming of UR 10 is quite simple. The employees of the electronics company soon learned how to use robots to do some teaching operations: they can move the robots to the required positions, and then make fine movements with teaching equipment. The operator can easily find the program in the menu, tap the keyboard, activate the robot, and then let the robot start a day's work.

The first intimate contact between paradigm electron and UR 10 was satisfactory. At present, they are considering how to apply the man-machine cooperative robot to other scenes of the production line, such as the painting workshop where they hope to operate various painting processes, and plan to introduce the robot into a new series of speakers that produce more parabolic shapes. With such a powerful and easy-to-use tool, workers are liberated from heavy labor and the production efficiency is increased by 50%!

Project archives

Name: Production Line of Nissan Yokohama Factory

Company size: 3,200 people

Products: engines, electric and hybrid vehicle engines.

Industry: automobile and parts manufacturing

Application: handling, loading and unloading, and tightening bolts.

Objective: To solve the beat problem of overtime production line and improve production efficiency.

Key value drivers: meet load requirements, flexibility and security.

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Let's take a look at the details of this case with UR, a man-machine cooperative robot expert:

Case background:

The production line of Nissan Yokohama Factory is a factory that produces motors for engines, shafts, electric vehicles and hybrid vehicles, covering raw material processing to assembly. In order to improve production efficiency, Nissan analyzed the overtime work of production line, hoping to eliminate this bottleneck by using robots. Finally, Youao UR 10 man-machine cooperative robot was applied to two production lines respectively, which improved the overall production efficiency of the factory and saved the cost caused by extra labor.

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Challenge:

In the intake pipe installation stage of the engine assembly process, the factory encountered such a problem: the configuration of workers will be adjusted according to the change of output, but the length of each adjustment is different, which leads to the interval of some stations exceeding the rated time limit and becoming the bottleneck of the production line. Therefore, Nissan decided to try to introduce robots, hoping to solve the overtime problem in production rhythm through new production methods.

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Solution:

In order to test the degree of man-machine cooperation, the Yokohama factory used the Youao robot from the beginning: because the workers are located on the opposite side of the conveyor belt, the robot that the factory hopes to cooperate with does not need a safety fence. The robot needs to carry the intake pipe with a self-weight of about 4 kg, and the total weight of the intake pipe handle is about 6 kg, so it is required that the robot must be able to bear such a load. After comparing other robot brands, Nissan chose to use UR 10.

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Nissan cooperates with Kantum Electronics, an integrator, to quickly learn the performance and usage of robots, and then quickly install them. In addition to handling parts, Nissan also installed a nut wrench on the UR robot arm on another production line to unscrew the NAD cam bolt.

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Advantages:

By using new production tools, Nissan solved the problem of overtime production line beat. And feel the convenience brought by the robot from the actual use process.

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Reduce the burden on the team:

In the actual use process, due to manual operation, workers have to manually carry heavy intake pipes, which makes them very tired after a day's work. Now, instead of manually transporting parts to workers, Youao robots are directly assembled by workers, which greatly reduces their labor load.

Safe man-machine cooperation:

Since UR robot does not need a safety fence, the factory can flexibly set up workstations during use, so that the robot can work with workers with confidence. This will not cause much change to the existing production line layout and save a lot of project testing and development time. Therefore, Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. will consider putting the man-machine cooperative robot into wider application in the future.

Light weight and easy installation;

UR robot is light in weight, and can use 100V power supply without installing safety fence. Compared with other equipment used before, Nissan can adjust production more conveniently. In an application case, the UR robot is installed on a platform with casters for easy movement. This combination is very convenient for production and application.

Compact structure and flexible deployment:

The space inside the factory is limited, and the installation space is also limited. Therefore, when Nissan chooses the robot scheme, it requires the robot to use the space with the workers. Moreover, the robot does not need a fixed installation position and can move according to production requirements.

Short payback period;

Based on the two-shift system, Nissan can recover its cost within 1 year after using UR human-machine cooperative robot. In the past, because of urgent production needs, it was necessary to increase personnel, thus generating additional labor costs. Now, after using the robot, it can flexibly meet various production needs and save manpower expenses.

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In the future, Nissan plans to further expand the use of robots and try to use UR robots in various scenarios. For the factory, although the configuration of workers will be adjusted according to the change of output, the bottleneck can be eliminated by moving the robot to the station where the production beat is overtime. With such a powerful and easy-to-use tool, the factory has more imagination in flexible deployment and improving production efficiency!

Project archives

Name: Continental Automotive Electronics

Company size: 500 people

Product: automobile dashboard

Industry: automobile and parts manufacturing

Application: pick and place, machine tool loading and unloading.

Objective: To solve the automation of production line and improve production efficiency.

Key-driven: programming is simple, flexible and safe.

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Let's take a look at the details of this case with UR, a man-machine cooperative robot expert:

Case background:

The cooperation with Continental Group, a multinational company, is an excellent transformation case of this industry. As a leader in the automotive field, Continental is by far the most automated manufacturer, taking the lead in moving towards Industry 4.0. In 20 16, the company decided to buy several UR 10 cooperative robots to carry out automatic manufacturing and processing of PCB boards. Compared with manual operation, the conversion time is reduced by 50% (from 40 minutes to 20 minutes).

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Challenge:

As a growing company, Continental has been in the automobile industry for 25 years and has been focusing on innovation, so it has won many important projects in the competition with other top companies. Cyril Hogard, the factory manager of Continental Spain, said when talking about the original intention of introducing UR collaborative robots: The company operates in the context of fierce competition in the industry, and one of the main challenges is to improve productivity. When he first heard about cooperative robots two years ago, he immediately believed that cooperative robots would become the cornerstone of automobile development in China in Industry 4.0 with its advantages of simple integration, low maintenance cost and high productivity.

Solution:

AUO robot is selected by Continental Automobile Company of Spain to carry out the tasks of loading, unloading and inspection of PCB boards and components in the manufacturing process, which is a monotonous and repetitive task and requires high accuracy.

At the beginning of the project, Continental Automobile installed two UR 10 robots for loading and unloading PCB boards and assembling components. At present, it has increased to six UR 10 cooperative robots, and another three UR 10 projects are under way.

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Continental's engineers actively participated in the project development. When we started the first project, we all knew that this meant that Continental Auto was using cooperative robots with more modern robot concepts to engage in groundbreaking technical work, and also heralded the emergence of smart factories with automation and industrial Internet of Things (IIOT) as the core.

Víctor Cantón, the engineer in charge of UR robot application, accepted the challenge, although he had no previous experience in robotics. A few weeks later, he learned the basic knowledge of UR cooperative robot and was able to start programming. In the early stage of the project, a Youao robot has been used in the laboratory to test, calculate the beat and plan the motion path, so as to prepare for simplifying and speeding up the field implementation.

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Advantages:

The team of Continental Group is very satisfied with the application effect of UR cooperative robot on its production line, and the product advantages are undoubtedly revealed during the operation.

Control and flexibility: programming is very simple; All electronic devices and robot controllers are integrated into the central controller, so they can be reprogrammed without the help of external experts.

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Reduce the burden on the team: The arrival of cooperative robots means that the role of operators has changed, and operators no longer need to perform complex tasks, such as moving components from one workstation to the next. They can now focus on skill tasks that can increase production.

Cost reduction: Continental automatically moves parts in the workshop, and compared with manual operation, the conversion time is reduced by 50% (from 40 minutes to 20 minutes), which reduces the operating cost.

Safety: Continental's team is very satisfied with the safety measures related to cooperative robots. For example, an operator can enter the unit at any time, and when the operator approaches the robot, the robot immediately stops operating because the additional sensor stops.

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For Continental's Spanish factory, the biggest challenge comes from production capacity. The cooperative robot can be the key to solve the problem because it is not a device, but a tool, which can work closely with existing teams and systems like a "colleague". Whether in product installation and deployment, mastering programming, or security, it is easier to use, helping users to reduce hidden costs as much as possible and making the use of tools "zero threshold".

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It takes only a short time for UR robot to be installed, debugged and put into use. UR robots can be redeployed in an hour, while traditional robots need at least one week; UR robots can start a new project in just a few weeks, while traditional industrial robots usually take more than half a year. The rapid production cycle will help Jianlin to respond to the changes in market demand more flexibly and enhance the competitiveness of its products. At present, the main applications of UR robot in forest production line include:

Dual-arm robot assembly products

Two UR robots can cooperate to complete product assembly. Because there are many processes in the assembly process, it is usually difficult for a robot to optimize the machine utilization rate. Youao robot has flexible joints and small space, which is very suitable for dual-arm cooperation applications. Double-arm operation * * * Enjoy the workspace, and use communication to coordinate the action sequence of both arms, so that the whole operation process is accurate, orderly, flexible and efficient.

Loading and unloading of hot plate welding machine

UR robot uses double suction cups when loading and unloading the disc welder, and the disc station completes the loading and unloading action at one time, and the overall action is coherent and compact. UR robot first attracts the bottom plate to be welded with the left magnet, then takes the finished product down and puts it on the bottom plate, and finally puts it on the right side for stacking.

Product assembly

When UR robot assembles products, it first takes nuts out of the outlet of the vibrating plate, puts them into acupuncture points, then takes and puts the products to be processed, and finally takes out the assembled products. Due to the requirements of assembly process, the robot TCP needs to rotate several times. Using the ultra-high degree of freedom of each joint of UR robot, teaching placement can be easily completed.

Product Picking and Placement

In the process of taking and placing products, the UR robot is hung on a disk workstation with little space, and the left and right workers randomly feed materials. After the screws are tightened, the UR robot takes down the finished products, and then sorts them according to the belt line. The flexible UR robot makes the transformation and adjustment of the production line easier.

Injection molding, demoulding, hot welding and gas testing.

Only one UR robot is needed to complete four processes: injection molding, parts taking, pouring, hot welding and gas testing. Under the traditional production mode, the operator can only complete one process at a time, and the semi-finished products are transferred back through the turnover box. The serialized production technology of UR robot can effectively save manpower and ensure product quality.

Pre-placed plug-in

In the application of pre-inserts, one UR robot can operate three injection molding machines at the same time, and the tool end is equipped with six jaws. The flexible wrist of the robot can quickly switch to any picking position. Using the super flexibility of the elbow, the tool moves from above to avoid horizontal interference.

Robot visual pickup

UR robot is equipped with a vision system, which is used to accurately pick up parts with disordered positions. As long as the parts are placed on the conveyor belt, the vision system can judge the type and position of the parts and transmit the information to the robot through the socket. The robot can complete positioning and picking, which greatly reduces the auxiliary manpower in the feeding process.

The slide rail is equipped with Youao robot injection molding machine to pick up parts.

A light UR robot is installed on the slide rail to expand the workspace of the robot. When the machines are far away and inconvenient to move, the robot can realize multi-station operation with the help of slide rails. Using robots can realize the automatic processing flow of multiple injection molding machines, effectively save costs and improve the working efficiency of the machines.

Create a safe working environment and promote benign cooperation between man and machine

Before the introduction of UR robot, Jianlin had a large number of workstations, all of which were manually operated. When the operation is highly repetitive, the human brain will feel tired, and some workstations are dangerous. When these stations are undertaken by UR robots, workers are freed from heavy repetitive work on the basis of safety, which not only promotes the benign cooperation between man and machine, but also greatly improves the work efficiency and ensures the product yield.

Rational allocation of human resources to improve profitability

Adam Sobieski, general manager of Danish Youao Robot Company in China, said:

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The operation of UR robot is simple and flexible, and it can be easily integrated into the whole assembly without too many adjustments to the existing forest production line. And it is convenient for programming and setting, and it is no longer necessary to arrange fixed personnel for long-term maintenance, thus saving labor costs.

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After the UR robot liberates the labor force, workers can engage in jobs that need to exert their thinking ability and have more added value, and the company does not have to fill their positions. This makes full use of the company's internal resources and realizes the flexible deployment of personnel, which not only effectively reduces the employee turnover rate, but also reduces the labor cost, thus improving the profitability.

Mr. Xie, chief engineer of Jianlin Industry, said: "Man-machine cooperative robot is a powerful innovation force in industrial manufacturing, which gives unprecedented flexibility to automated production. With the continuous development of man-machine cooperative robots, automatic production will no longer be synonymous with long-period, large-batch and single-product standardized manufacturing, but has the possibility of customization, small-batch and multi-variety manufacturing. Therefore, we are full of confidence in the development prospects of Danish Youao robots. "