Start-up - it brings to mind e-business and a bustling office atmosphere, typical clichés. However different the business ideas may be, successful start-ups have one thing in common: rapid growth of their company. Mechanical engineer Severin Bobon and electrical engineer Simon Karl are two such successful start-ups. Together, they set up their own part-time business, BoKa Automatisierung, in 2014. The figures show the success of the concept: An initial balance sheet in 2016 showed a turnover of 320,000 euros; now, three years later, it is likely to be 1.8 million euros.

Working together in a spirit of trust: Severin Bobon (left), BoKa, and Jan Birkholz, Sales Engineer Northern Bavaria, Röhm GmbH. © Röhm

The company is based on four pillars: personnel services, programming of control systems, special systems and control cabinet construction and a fourth division: service. Severin Bobon describes the company's mission: "The focus of our goals is always to offer our customers the best possible service and the best possible solution." A maxim that was also followed in the development of CodaBot, the latest product from BoKa. CodaBot stands for Collaborative Discharge Assistant Robot. A special machine that can be used to implement a wide range of customer requirements quickly and flexibly. The highlight: a machine platform with a clever perforated grid forms the basic construction. A wide variety of devices can be anchored within the grid, such as robots, measuring machines and similar components. A mobile modular system that can be extended to form a complete machine. Severin Bobon sums up the idea behind it: "A special machine based on a series machine and a standard modular system. Car manufacturers do the same thing in the form of equipment lists."

Flexibility is the top priority

The user can configure and create the desired production solution themselves from all of this. They simply combine the various modules until the special machine is complete and perfect for their application. Because a wide variety of workpieces have to be handled in the respective applications, flexibility is also the top priority for the grippers. "We rely on products from Röhm," explains Bobon. Grippers that he knows from his many years of professional experience and whose technology he is familiar with. The Managing Director appreciates the good and trusting partnership with Röhm. The cooperation is smooth, competent and goal-oriented, and Röhm employees are always available. For Bobon, therefore, there was and is "no reason to change." He knows his way around Röhm grippers.

Robot works collaboratively

The two-jaw gripper in detail. © Röhm

The Cube System is the name of the platform of the latest BoKa development, which is based on a sheet metal bending and welding construction in the shape of a cube and in which such cubes can be arranged in any order. With the cube system and the corresponding robots on it, mass products can be handled directly at the machine. A system located near Hamburg shows how such a process can take place. There, medical products - namely titanium bone nails - are automatically removed from the lathe. A titanium chip is then removed from a frontal threaded hole so that the bone nails can be cleaned in an ultrasonic bath. A device then cleans and blows the bone nails dry so that the sensitive workpieces can then be set down free of damage and scratches. This is also a challenge for the gripper. The classic 3 m bar is used for production, and the workpieces can have a diameter of 100 mm. This system uses a two-jaw gripper, the PPP50 from Röhm, modified with special technical features according to customer requirements. Depending on the workpiece dimensions, smaller or larger grippers are used, which can be controlled electrically or pneumatically and are designed to be self-retaining.