Improving productivity and increasing safety with UR cobots

OTV Plast

In short

OTV Plast were looking for ways to use a collaborative robot arm to improve productivity across the business. The UR solution met their needs for a small, affordable and safe robot. Since its introduction, productivity has increased by 35% and OTV are exploring other ways to integrate robotics. OTV Plast produces plastic parts for many different industries.

The milling and finishing of a part is repetitive work and is susceptible to fluctuations in production time due to employee engagement – a textbook example of where a robot can make a massive impact.

To match OTV specific needs, a robot would have to be small enough to work in limited space, be affordable (with a short payback period) and be able to work near people without the need for bulky shielding or fencing.

OTV Plast

Industry Plastic and Polymers

Country Europe

Number of Employees 25-50

Cobots used UR5

How they did it

After considering all of the criteria, a Universal Robot solution was one of the only options that could meet all of OTV’s needs. OTV chose a UR solution that, after the comparatively short installation time, was able to integrate with the production line.

Installation, CE marking and training took a total of three days. Two days to install and optimise the robot solution and one day to train employees how to operate. Almost immediately, OTV saw an increase in productivity. And after a small adjustment of adding another grabbing device to the collaborative robot arm performance was increased by an additional 35%.

The new technology allows OTV to bid for projects that wouldn’t have been possible before. This, and the experience of using the robot in the production, makes robots a strong potential investment for OTV in the future.