"I had a lot of aches and pains in the past" (USA)
Thyssenkrupp Bilstein is a manufacturing plant in Hamilton, Ohio, manufacturing high-tech suspension solutions for the automotive industry. In 2018, it made a commitment to its employers, especially women, to decrease ergonomically unfavorable tasks.
Nine UR10 collaborative robots were deployed at the manufacturer’s plant to automate hard-to-staff tasks such as machine tending, assembly, and product inspection. The cobots optimized production and provided a better work environment.
‘Now we can flow much better production-wise and my job is easier as I just load the tubes and let the cobots take care of the rest´, says operator Quenna Quarles who handles the now-automated tasks.
E.J. Seck, who used to manually tend a CNC machine and a hole puncher, enjoys his new cobot colleagues that have taken over these tasks. ‘Before the robots it was crazy, but now my job is much more organized´, he says. ‘I can take my time and do my quality checks and my production reports. I won´t lose count of how much I ran because I can focus on that more than running around in circles.’
TASKS SOLVED BY COLLABORATIVE ROBOTS: Tending of CNCs, punch and forming machines, pick-and place, assembly, product inspection
Read the full case story here.