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Machine tooling company uses UR cobots to address staffing issues

STAMIT

In short

STAMIT is a machine tooling company, producing over 4,000 differently tooled objects each year. Based in Slavkov, Czech Republic, STAMIT manufactures 12 million parts annually for the optic, print, packaging and healthcare industries. Deploying a UR10 robot in the high-mix/low-volume production line enabled the manufacturer to staff a third shift with the robot filling a difficult to staff position.

STAMIT has been recently facing increased orders from both existing and new customers, which proved demanding in terms of flexible order delivery and quality control. A shortage of qualified technical workers propelled the company to implement robotic technologies to increase productivity.

“One of the challenges in our shop floor was loading parts into two CNC tooling centers during the three-shift operation; previously performed manually – with one operator needed per shift,” says Petr Mitáček managing director of STAMIT. “Manual part loading was very hard and tiring and we needed to increase performance. It was clear that a human operator is naturally limited and that we needed to face this challenge a different way.”

STAMIT

Industry Metal and Machining

Country Europe

Number of Employees 100-500

Cobots used UR10

Video — UR10 robot, Stamit, Czech Republic

Adaptation to UR cobot took only 2 weeks

To get a real picture about the deployment of robots into production, the company management visited several UR customers facing similar challenges. Ultimately the company selected the UR10 model primarily for its physical reach, adaptability and variability of picking and placing different objects. “We were impressed by the Universal Robot and its easy programming and installation. We can deploy it into any operation very fast. The cobot does not require a large work cell as it works safely with no special safety caging or fences,” says Mitáček.

When preparing for the robot deployment, STAMIT made a safety evaluation of the workplace with the UR10 cobot and obtained a positive final report and certification of the ES compliance. The implementation phase included a communication setup between the robot and a CNC machine, with the total time to integrate the cobot into full production taking three weeks. The cobot works with a two-finger gripper. Adoption time to work with the robot took just two weeks with human operators now able to reconfigure production without changing the basic layout and setup of material in the machine.

There is a high competition in the CNC tooling market, which motivates us to increase productivity. In the current situation, we need to increase our performance with a shortage of a qualified workers. Universal Robots demonstrated that it is possible to automate quickly, flexibly and without complicated organizational changes and high investments into safety technology.

Petr Mitáček, Managing Director

Reduced technical downtime, increased performance

The production performance increased with the automation of machine tending processes and reduction in technical downtime enabling the growth of the total business performance. The workforce is freed from routine and repetitive motion tasks. Three employees changed position from manual labor to more valued positions after installation. Currently, STAMIT has been extending the machine tending application with UR10 robots – with three applications now in use.

Solving business problems

With the Universal Robot, STAMIT managed to solve one of the main business goals, which was a partial automation of their production line. The met goal enabled STAMIT to substitute a robot where qualified employees could not be found. The management expects the UR10 to pay itself back in no more than 17 months.