Unresolved issues
In recent years, with the rapid rise of raw material prices and labor costs in the country, manufacturers faced the challenge of how to optimize their manufacturing capabilities and enhance their competitiveness in the international market. In the era of information technology and smart manufacturing, companies are seeking to transform their factory to address prominent issues such as low efficiency of manual handling in the workshop, disorderly accumulation of goods, and difficult-to-control production processes. A process improvement in manufacturing is necessary for them.
Solution
Intending to optimize the production line and improve the manufacturing process, a leading stationery equipment manufacturing company in the world launched the “Smart Factory” project in late 2016. The optimized production line area of the project covers 6,000 square meters, including over 160 injection molding machines.
The project utilized 30 Surfer AMR robots to connect with existing conveyor belts, transport materials from raw material boxes to finished products, complete the smart storage warehouse, and work with robot arms to perform production without human intervention.
To further enhance the level of automation, the company invested in an additional 30 Flash robots in 2017 to transport goods from the robot arm to the warehouse and complete the entire smart storage process automatically. The company leads the way in completing the transformation from “production” to “smart production”.
Function realization
Feeding efficiency is greatly improved
During operation, thanks to stable dynamic performance, the Surfer AMR robot can quickly and automatically transfer material boxes to the conveyor belt, reducing the time to replace empty or full boxes. In addition, the Surfer robot has a multi-compartment design, with 4 conveyor compartments to significantly reduce the number of tasks performed.
Surfer AMRs dock with the conveyor belts
The RCS robot scheduling system is connected to the material information system of the production line. Robots are scheduled to transport designated goods to corresponding conveyor belts.
Production line conditions are improved
The two-tier roller design allows the Surfer robot to receive and deliver at the same time, while also being able to select and place boxes of finished products or empty material boxes in order, ensuring the continuity of the production process and reducing the risk of errors caused by disorderly arrangement of material boxes. The production process is in order.
Unmanned and intelligent material storage
Robot Flash docks with the robotic arm for picking up bins from the conveyor belt to perform automatic warehousing and outbound operations of full and empty boxes. The continuous throughput can reach up to 400 boxes/hour, significantly improving the efficiency of material storage operations and realizing fully automated warehousing.
Flash AMRs dock with the robotic arm
The intelligent warehouse management system iWMS is connected to the SAP system, ensuring the accuracy and real-time nature of information storage for materials, while also improving the speed of material circulation within the warehouse.
Minimal cost, flexible production
AMR mobile robot adopts a QR code + inertial dual navigation system. If the production line is adjusted, it only needs to change the “map” of the production line through the scheduling system, and lay a QR code on the corresponding area on the ground. The robot can immediately adjust its path. According to the low and peak seasons of production demand, the scheduling system can flexibly adjust the number of robots on the line to achieve flexible production.
Customer benefits
The person in charge of the production line shared:
“During the initial deployment phase, the solution only required placing QR codes on the floor and the robot could navigate itself. Compared to other automation solutions, the project is easy to implement and does not affect the daily operation of the production line.
The logistics between our injection molding workshop, semi-finished product inventory, and assembly workshop have been opened up and formed a streamlined production method.
In the future, we plan to use even more robots to perform functions ranging from material storage, selection, and loading to transportation of finished products, to realize the entire intelligent production and storage process.”
To learn more about the AMRs – autonomous mobile robots and get a comprehensive automation solution, feel free to contact us. With a team of highly qualified and experienced engineers, Rozitek is confident to provide the most suitable solution and bring a different change for customers.
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