A robot to see off the competitors

At a time when buyers are putting increasing pressure on their suppliers, savings need to be made throughout the production process. That is why the glass manufacturer Gern Glass from Central Jutland has invested in flexible robot technology from Universal Robots. Now, a one-armed "colleague" does the boring jobs.

Intelligent automation

If suppliers in other countries can do something slightly cheaper, there is a risk that high-volume orders will go abroad.

This is a fact of life for most of Danish industry. Including the manufacturer Gern Glass. The fight back begins with intelligent automation. In recent years the company has invested in new optimised production facilities, while simultaneously focusing on making the best possible use of capacity. The glass maker's customers come from Denmark and further afield, and tend to be active in the furniture industry, kitchens and construction.

When Gern Glass found out in early 2009 that there was a new and different kind of robot on the market, the management decided to invest in one of the robots from Universal Robots.

"This is a completely different kind of industrial robot, which is much cheaper than what was on the market before. The robotic arm is mobile, user-friendly and flexible. It is mounted on a trolley, so we can move it to where we can put it to best use," explains Glenn Larsen, technical manager in Gern Glass.

Expensive consultants, no thanks

He is also happy that he does not need to pay expensive consultants to reprogram the robot for new tasks.

"We can simply hold the robot arm and show it the movements we want it to make. It then repeats the movements the number of times we enter on the touchscreen supplied," says Glenn Larsen.

Bo Detlefsen, factory manager in Gern Glas, adds:
"Safety, mobility and flexibility are crucial for us. We don't need to fence it in like a normal robot. And we can easily move it to different jobs, without the need for a programmer spending three days coding, plus three mechanics and a crane to move the robot.

The robot is able to re-use the created programs for recurrent tasks.

Energy savings from day one

Just ten hours after arriving at Gern Glas in Sorring, Central Jutland, the robot was already busy with its first job – laying panes of glass on a conveyor for tempering.

Gern Glas uses a continuous furnace, integrated with an internal transport system on two floors. It is very effective, but rather power-hungry.

The glass pieces pass through the furnace on a wide conveyor. The glass often does not occupy the full width of the conveyor. The robotic arm helps to make far better use of the capacity and makes sure there are no bottleneck issues.

"It places relatively small pieces of glass on the conveyor in an extra row alongside the other pieces. That way, we can temper much more glass for the same electricity," says Glenn Larsen.

The robot does the hard work

The managers at Gern Glas also expect the new robot technology to reduce some of the time spent by employees feeding pieces into the machines. The robotic arm will take over some of this one-sided work.

"Time passes very slowly if you spend weeks doing the same thing. So the robot can relieve the pressure and create a more varied working day for employees. The robot is happy working on monotonous jobs," says Glenn Larsen.

The management of Gern Glas expects the first robotic arm to pay for itself within six to twelve months. The robot costs the equivalent of 800 working hours for hourly-paid production workers.