Robots provide glass manufacturer with a clear competitive edge
In short
Gern Glas is one of Scandinavia’s largest suppliers of plane glass and mirrors for the furniture, kitchen, building and solar industries. To secure the position as a competitive manufacturer robot technology was implemented on the production line. As a result, the high energy using glass tempering process has been optimised and workers have been relieved from some of the monotonous tasks.
If suppliers in other countries can do something slightly cheaper, there is a risk that high-volume orders go abroad. This is a fact, too, for Danish pane glass and mirror manufacturer Gern Glas. In order to make the best possible use of capacity and stay competitive the company decided to invest in robot technology.
Gern Glas
Glenn Larsen, Technical ManagerThe Universal Robot is a completely different kind of industrial robot. We don’t need to fence it in like a normal robot. And we can easily move it to different jobs without the need for a programmer spending three days coding, plus three mechanics and a crane to move the robot
Effective glass loading
The UR5 and the UR10 turned out to be the optimum robotic combination for Gern Glas who was also concerned about the monotonous tasks that their employees were exposed to every day.
Universal Robots’ technology offered not only a much more effective way to load smaller pieces of glass onto the conveyor belt for the high energy burning tempering process. It also helped limit the one-sided work of feeding pieces into the machine.
Flexible and user-friendly cobots impress
“The UR5 now places relatively small pieces of glass on the conveyor in an extra row alongside the other pieces. That way, we can temper much more glass for the same electricity. And the robot is happy working on monotonous jobs”, says Glenn Larsen, technical manager at Gern Glas who is very satisfied with the way the robotic arm helps to make far better use of the capacity and avoid bottleneck issues.
In addition to the UR5 that feeds the glass onto the conveyor belt the process line is equipped with a UR10 for sandblasting and an additional UR5 for gluing. Particularly the flexibility and the user-friendliness of the robots have impressed Gern Glas.
Automation challenges solved:
The UR robot helped limit monotonous tasks. offered an effective way to load smaller pieces of glass onto a conveyor for glass tempering, maximising space in the high energy burning process. Payback period: 6 to 12 months.
Key value drivers:
Easy programming Fast set-up Flexible deployment Collaborative and safe
Tasks solved by collaborative robots:
Pick and place
Get in touch with Universal Robots
Thousands of businesses rely on Collaborative Robots to...
- Increase productivity
- Adapt to changing product demand
- Improve employee well-being and retention
- Staff through labor shortages
- Universal Robots USA, Inc
- 27175 Haggerty Road, Suite 160
- 48377 Novi, MI