The company is now able to complete welding tasks cheaper and is probably going to invest in the second RBCobot.
Kurs Jensens Maskinfabrik has never had a robot before. But when the company from Fyn received a big order of a couple of thousand valve housings last summer, the green light for a welding robot was given.
-We've been talking about getting a welding robot for several years, but we have felt it was too expensive. Until a couple of years ago, it cost at least 1 mio. DKK, Tommy Jensen, owner and CEO of the company says.
Tommy Jensen chose an RBCobot, which largely consists of a UR-robot, a welding table and a welding machine. The robot arrived at Fyn around September 1st, and has cost Kurt Jensen Maskinfabrik approximately ½ mio. DKK.
- We thought that the robot would only become a smaller part of our production. But in reality a larger part of the robot can be welded on the robot, constructor Jakob Larsen says, who has been working intensively with the new robot.
It takes 20 minutes
He demonstrates, how fast the robot is programmed. The programming happens on the UR-robots control panel. You just have to push a few buttons back and forward on some arrows and then Jakob Larsen has locked in the starting point.
- The day we got the robot, we programmed for 20 minutes and afterwards we were able to weld our item in the very first attempt. Jakob Larsen says. This happened despite the fact that none of the workers had any prior knowledge about programming robots.
The robot was purchased with the intent of completing tasks of a large quantity of valve housing, which had to be welded in four places. The worker was immediately a bit skeptic to take in a robot.
- The robot didn't even get here fast enough, so we managed to weld 250 valve housings manually. This is the point, where they actually started to look forward to get the robot, Tommy Jensen says and laughs.
"We'll just use the robot..."
Now the employees are often the ones who say:
- This is something we can use the welding robot for.
So the use cases continue to pile up.
The company is experimenting with getting welding collars on pipes with the robot. This is a process, which normally is completed thousands of times a year in the company and would be highly beneficial to automate.
- We are working on it, and I believe it will work, Jakob Larsen says.
Also for smaller orders
The company has realised, that the robot is also excellent at completing smaller orders.
- It doesn't have to be several thousand items. We've actually had orders of 50 items, where it made sense to get it done on the welding robot, Tommy Jensen says.
- The robot means, that we can now offer cheaper products and simultaneously offer a better uniformity and even better quality, Tommy Jensen says.
- Things have to go really south, if we don't get another welding robot within a couple of years, he says.
The company from Fyn appreciates the fact that it is a collaborative robot:
- We can walk up to the robot. We can stand and set up the next item, while the robot welds. We can work together with it, Jakob Larsen says.