From infusion stands to nursing trolleys: the products that hospital supplier Hospital Metalcraft manufactures under the brand name Bristol Maid in Dorset, UK, are part of the National Health Service's (NHS) "Health & Social Care Supply Chain" - and are currently in high demand. The aim was therefore to increase production capacity at short notice by adding a new robotic welding cell specifically for a newly developed pumping station.

Yaskawa realized a corresponding solution in record time. Yaskawa's engineers managed to plan and implement a complete, application-specific robotic welding cell in just four weeks - less than a third of the usual delivery time.

The prerequisite for this was created on the one hand through cooperation with a local system partner and with the Austrian welding specialists from Fronius. On the other hand, Yaskawa can guarantee short supply chains thanks to its own European system construction with locations in Germany, Slovenia and Sweden. The offer includes all services from a single source: from planning, development and construction of the devices to positioners and robot programming through to turnkey commissioning.

Hospital Metalcraft and Yaskawa have been working together for a long time. It was clear to everyone involved that this current request had to be dealt with quickly: "Yaskawa offers a wide range of robotic systems, and when we were asked to contribute to such an important project within such a tight schedule, we were very happy to accept the challenge," says Jonny Grey, Sales and Marketing Manager for the UK.

Welding robot from the Motoman AR series
The heart of the cell is a particularly powerful welding robot from the Motoman AR series: The Motoman AR2010 impresses with its large working range of 2,010 millimetres and, with its high payload of up to twelve kilograms, is suitable for welding bulky and large components.

The six-axis robots in Yaskawa's AR series have been specially developed to meet the requirements of arc welding. They enable the user to achieve shorter process times, which in turn leads to increased efficiency and energy savings. The flexible, extremely fast manipulators offer considerable space savings thanks to their slim design and allow them to be positioned in the tightest of spaces. The use of robots enables integrated production concepts for optimized process times and high production performance. as