Carriere Industrial Supply (CIS) in Sudbury, Canada produces heavy earth-moving equipment for harsh mining environments. With large workpieces that are difficult to move and a low-volume, high-mix manufacturing environment, traditional robots aren’t ideal. Cobots from Universal Robots (UR) let CIS bring the robot to work—rather than the other way around – to improve product quality, output, and employee safety.
Plasma-cutting cobot saves 1,000 hours on a single project. Manual plasma cutting leaves an accumulation of dross at the bottom of the piece along with jagged edges that occur when workers need to reposition themselves for long cuts. Cleaning up the manual cut accounts for 80 percent of plasma-cutting time, making that an ideal area for improvement. CIS deployed a UR10e cobot to plasma cut large metal parts, achieving a more precise cut and the possibility of eliminating the grinding and cleanup of joints. Operators appreciate that the work is more rewarding and less physically demanding, and are easily able to reposition the robot for cut improvements. The project provided significant time and cost savings. On a single large truck body contract over the next three years, the trimming process would be more than 50 hours for every truck. The UR cobot reduced that time to 12 hours per truck, ultimately delivering savings of 1,000 hours on that project alone.
Pierre Levesque - Manager of Innovation and Technologies - Carriere Industrial SupplyUR is definitely a platform we’re going to continue to work with. The ease of use and the approachability of the platform is very appealing for the company
CIS leveraged its robotic plasma cutting experience to even more difficult MIG welding projects. The MIG-welding UR10e follows similar curvatures and profiles as the plasma-cutting robot, but welding them instead of cutting them.
In the production of truck bodies that have seven large, fillet-welded ribs spaced three to four feet apart, the length of the welds raises critical ergonomic challenges for welders. Now, a welder works on one rib while the cobot welds the next, effectively splitting the work in half and giving the human worker more time for less strenuous, more productive tasks.
Mason Fraser, junior software engineer at CIS, programmed the plasma cutting of the most complex parts, then built a new URCap program (software handshake between the cobot arm and its peripherals accessible on the cobot’s teach pendant) that “puts the operator in the driver’s seat” with an easy-to-use interface.
Levesque adds, “What the URCAP does is augment that operator’s ability by automatically navigating any plate geometry imperfections, and adjusting corner speed when necessary, based on the geometry and the points they provided. So now you have a very successful cut, reduced time, reduced risk for the operator, and it is a win-win for both the operation and the operator.”
For the MIG welding application, the massive workpieces weigh over 15 tons. That required CIS to bring the robot to the workpiece, rather than the other way around. Unable to find a standard solution, the CIS team developed a custom welding skid that can be moved with a forklift to wherever the welding robot is needed. The robot is mounted on a lift to create a seventh axis to reach the entire weld on the side of a truck body. The relatively light weight of the UR cobot arm allowed CIS to develop this innovative approach.
Mason Fraser - Junior Software Engineer at CIS - Carriere Industrial SupplyThe UR Academy has great examples and tutorials on programming the robot. It actually gives you a full simulation of how a program would look and how to write it, without having to download any software.”
Comparison of manually cut part (left) and robotic cut part (right) shows elimination of dross and jagged edges that no longer need to be cleaned up with the robot.
UR10e MIG welding robot is mounted on a 7th axis and placed on a mobile skid to bring the robot to large workpieces. A human welder and robotic welder work side-by-side, leap-frogging across the side of the truck body to double output.
Fillet-welded ribs on the side of the truck in foreground
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