Page 32 - MetalForming May 2017

Robots on
Wheels
...help with bending, stamping and more at Scott Fetzer Electrical Group. Safety and productivity are the reasons why.
Scott Fetzer Electrical Group (SFEG), a high-mix, low- volume electronics manufacturer in Fairview, TN, was formed in 2010 to bring together the capabilities of three company businesses: France Power Solutions, North- land Motor Technology and Kingston Products. To propel the new entity, which manufactures transformers, power supplies, motion controls and drive systems, SFEG sought ways to become more competitive on a global scale while taking advantage of its existing machinery. The company employs all manner of equipment, including stamping press- es, press brakes and benders, turret punch presses, welding machines and cutters, to go along with its assorted assembly machinery and systems.
What’s one way to become more efficient, productive and, thus, competitive? SFEG found an answer: robots. More specifically, collaborative, mobile robots that work alongside people and machinery to handle a variety of tasks.
Mobile, Flexible Robot Force Takes Shape
“We’re a high-mix, low-volume producer and most of our lines don’t run all of the time, so trying to find a way to put robots on the line in the traditional sense was a very big challenge,” says Matthew Bush, SFEG director of operations.
Article supplied by Universal Robots USA, Ann Arbor, MI; tel. 844 462-6268, www.universal-robots.com.
At Scott Fetzer Electrical Group (SFEG), near Nashville, TN, collaborative robots are placed on wheeled pedestals, enabling them to move quickly between tasks. Here, after performing pick-and-place at an SFEG stamping press, a robot is set up to tend a box folder and fastener press.
30 MetalForming/May 2017
www.metalformingmagazine.com
This mobile 10-kg-payload robot is being deployed at a stamp- ing press in SFEG’s sheetmetal department.