In Garching, Voith mainly manufactures drive elements for road and rail transportation. Here, a combination of innovative technology and many years of knowledge ensures production. The Group's recipe for success lies in constantly identifying new optimization potential and rethinking its own production processes. This is necessary, not least due to the growing demands of the market: "A few years ago, our sector was still strongly characterized by series production - we had stable incoming orders," says Steffen Krippendorf, Senior Vice President Plant Cluster AtO at the Garching plant. "We are now increasingly project-driven and have to react more flexibly to customer orders, as product cycles have shortened and product variants have multiplied. Customer requirements are becoming increasingly difficult to plan. Automation was the only logical response to these challenges at our plant."

State-of-the-art automation technologies guarantee high quality and short cycle times. In the beginning, only classic industrial robots were used. Over time, however, it became apparent that the solutions had to respond to new requirements at ever shorter notice. "We needed a robot that was easy to implement and operate so that we could quickly adapt it to new orders," says Mustafa Kandemir, Supervisor Assembly Development. "In addition, it had to fit seamlessly into the production design without us having to change the assembly or production lines." The cobots from Universal Robots were the first choice due to the defined requirements.

From bottleneck to clock generator

For several months now, a UR5e from Universal Robots has been supporting employees on the assembly line for wear-free brakes, known as retarders. These water-powered brakes are installed in commercial vehicles such as trucks. The robot arm connects three components for the brakes on the main assembly line, which was previously considered a bottleneck. In the first step, it removes a spring and places it on a clipboard. The UR-Cobot then picks up one of two stop variants and lifts it into a test station. "As we have two types of stop, a measuring device is fitted to the cobot to determine the diameter," explains Kandemir. "This allows the UR5e to identify the correct type and select it for further processing." In the final step, the cobot removes a central screw and joins all three parts together before placing them in the automated screwing station next door. A Robotiq gripper is attached to the robot arm to pick up the different workpieces. "We were able to adapt the fingers of the end effector so that the UR5e can move all components safely and precisely," says Kandemir. Peripheral devices such as the components offered in the UR+ ecosystem expand the range of applications and performance of the robots and make it possible to automate applications individually. Today, the robot arm at Voith only needs 25 seconds for the entire joining process. "The speed at the station is high, as we have clearly defined cycle time specifications. Thanks to the automation solution, we can meet these again without any problems," says Kandemir.

Converted in just a few minutes

Before the cobot took over the joining work, its human colleagues had to carry out the monotonous and unergonomic work. In the long term, the movements can lead to health problems due to unfavorable postures. "In addition, the time pressure at this station was very high and the work was not particularly varied," says Osman Kizilkaya. The Supporting Process Optimizer works regularly with the robot. "The cobot is a great relief for us employees. We were particularly surprised by how easy it is to program. Any of us can commission and adapt the Cobot without any prior knowledge. The quick successes we achieve with it motivate us."