The transformable factory is within reach: SCHUNK

By Niraj M Wanikar, Chief Editor, CNCTimes.com, 2017-08-18 17:02:00

Fourth SCHUNK Competence Day

“The German and European mechanical engineering industry currently find themselves in a state of great upheaval that we haven’t experienced in the past ten years,” underlined Dr. Markus Klaiber, Chief Technology Officer/CTO of SCHUNK GmbH & Co. KG in Lauffen/Neckar, regarding the latest development within the industry, at the opening of the fourth SCHUNK Competence Day. More than 50 manufacturing experts from Germany and Switzerland came to this exclusive one-day event at the headquarters of the competence leader for gripping systems and clamping technology to analyze the possibilities of creating more flexible and economic production processes.

According to Dr. Markus Klaiber, the most important drivers of the current upheaval are the increased digitalization of production processes, the high dynamics of start-up companies, electromobility, an increasingly rich variety of consumer and capital goods, as well as political framework conditions which are currently dominated by discussions on trade barriers and increasing protectionism. Systems and factories have to be capable of producing smaller and smaller batches in ever decreasing production time. “From SCHUNK’s perspective the transformable factory is within reach,“ concluded SCHUNK manufacturing experts.

Practice-oriented presentations and factory tour

SCHUNK presented four top-class case studies, which were nominated for the SCHUNK Competence Award 2017. The studies showed how production processes can be created flexibly and economically today. Studies included a flexible high-speed assembly plant of aerne engineering AG from Switzerland, an efficient production of lightweight washbasins for the aviation industry of Schüschke GmbH & Co. KG, the economic grinding application of planetary wheels at Preinfalk GmbH, and a fully automated inspection cell for brake valves at Tries GmbH & Co. KG. aerne engineering AG won the public voting for the SCHUNK Competence Award 2017, due to the impressive potentials of their plant. 50 different assembly group variants are produced fully automated with a maximum set-up time of 12 minutes, and a cycle time of 1.2 seconds.

Participants received in-depth insight into possible ways of optimizing production flexibility during an impressive factory tour through the SCHUNK toolholder and chuck jaw production in Lauffen. The combination of quick-change pallet systems, clamping force blocks, quick-change jaws, and precision toolholders ensure a highly flexible chuck jaw production with maximum autonomy, and the system can run unmanned up to 30 hours. Another fully automated system for intelligent linking of production and logistics processes used for manufacturing SCHUNK TENDO toolholders is just as efficient. At a semi-automated turn/mill center SCHUNK showed how quick-change chucks and robots without a protective fence can be implemented with minimum manual effort. Moreover, a collaborative assembly application showcased the efficient cooperation of humans and robots using a DGUV-certified SCHUNK Co-act Gripper (certified by the German Social Accident Insurance). Moreover, the participants of the Competence Day were able to experience the advantages of the TENDO Slim 4ax precision toolholders: they were able to see, hear, and even feel them in milling tests, which compared them with heat shrinking mountings.

Self-criticism as a key of success

The exclusive technology-goalkeeper talk with SCHUNK brand ambassador, Jens Lehmann turned out to be a high-class didactic play for effective success strategies. “A portion of self-criticism was a permanent companion on my way to the top,“ emphasized the world-class goalkeeper and further explained “disappointments have taught me that I had to train better and that I have to perfect my skills.” Being number 1 means to keep the number 2 at bay, and to constantly question oneself, continues Lehmann. Dr. Markus Klaiber, Head of Production at SCHUNK, made clear that there is still enough room at the top for the potentials of gripping systems and clamping technology. It is the SCHUNK company objective to use digital functions and thus offer an adequate support throughout a system’s entire life cycle with maximum economic efficiency. For this purpose, SCHUNK continues to develop its program of smart services, from the design to order processing, maintenance, operation, and service; as a result the depth of information on the individual processes also increases. Through gathering information “closest to the part“ by SCHUNK grippers and clamping devices, it will be possible, to optimize processes, to increase process reliability, and also maximize the total usage of factories.

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