Humans and machine collaborate to meet today’s challenges

Flexible production with cobots

The factory is a typical high-mix, low-volume production facility. There are cells or lines that only operate a few hours a day, and the process needs frequent and manual changes. For this application, the OMRON TM14 collaborative robot was selected. It is very suitable for high-mix low-volume production where layout changes are frequent. The cobot recognizes the landmark and knows immediately what it’s supposed to do at a specific cell. There is no need for calibration or reteaching of the cobot every time it is moved. So for example, one cobot can be shared between two laser marking machines.

Reaching for zero errors

With a high-mix low-volume production there is always a higher risk of human error. Although extremely low, the risk of quality incidents is not zero. With the implementation of cobots, the risk can be mitigated and the goal of zero errors reached. In this era of big data, traceability is an important quality requirement. By using collaborative robots, the need for manual data input and management can be eliminated.

Ensuring safety

Collaborative robots also have many advantages from a safety point of view. For example, it can operate at a slower speed in collaborative mode. If there is ever a contact between a person or obstacle, it will make a safe stop. Setting up the safety parameters is also intuitive and easy. But a safety risk assessment must be conducted and collaborative robots are no exception. The factory worked together with OMRON’s professional safety risk assessment team to ensure proper safety analysis and risk mitigation.

Factory of the future

Solving societal issues and respecting humanity are important to OMRON’s corporate philosophy. In the factory of the future, we will able to realize the collaboration between people and robots at a higher level. Manufacturing processes can be adapted flexibly and intelligently in order to meet changing market demands. In the factory of the future, we can also relieve workers from repetitive and dull tasks. They can focus on tasks that add more value. People will be happier at work by doing desirable and creative jobs.