Steel fabricator Rockpress (Rocklea Pressed Metal) has been operating since 1972. Mobile Automation delivered their first collaborative welding cell, they measured a 40% productivity increase from it, and then they ordered a second.
Why production welding suited a cobot
The case for a collaborative welding cell came out of the work already on the shop floor.
- Skilled welders are scarce, and production welding competes for their time
- Production welding is repetitive and fatiguing for the welders doing it
- Consistency across long production runs is difficult to hold by hand
- The shop runs jobbing work rather than one long single-part run
A cell sized for jobbing work
The first cell was specified around the way the workshop already works.
- Built around a single UR10 collaborative robot
- Sized for the shop's jobbing work rather than a dedicated production line
- Programmable by Rockpress's own team, not only by Mobile Automation
- Deployed without reorganising the workshop around it
- Welding parameters and part programs kept in the customer's hands
A second, larger cell on the customer's numbers
The measured results from the first cell justified a second, larger one.
- Second cell specified larger than the first cell
- The two cells run independently, or in tandem, depending on the job
- Repeat order placed by Rockpress on their own measured productivity figures
The results
- Productivity measured up 40% after the first robot went in
- Repetitive-strain and fatigue injuries designed out of production welding
- Welders moved up into programming and quality control roles
- Weld consistency held across long production runs
- A second, larger cell added on the strength of the first
- In the client's words: “The gains are obvious — and we have improved in all areas.”