Man and Technology in Close Contact

As a leading manufacturer of press tools for building sanitary technology, Emerson Professional Tools AG must manufacture reliably and with process stability. For this reason - and due to the limited space available - the Cobot CRX-10𝑖A/L from FANUC has been used on a lathe since 2021. It has a compact design and increases machine availability to up to 96 percent.

In search of a suitable supplier, Stefan Rüdisühli, who is responsible for the management and further development of the site and therefore also for production, turned to the Swiss FANUC subsidiary. The reasons for this were, on the one hand, decades of good experience with FANUC controllers and, on the other hand, two FANUC robots that were already reliably in use.

As a collaborative robot, the FANUC CRX-10𝑖A/L does not require any elaborate safety devices, which ultimately has a positive effect on its footprint. Fully complying with the safety standards according to ISO 10218-1 its sensitive sensors trigger an immediate safety stop if it touches an obstacle. The anti-trap protection and the soft rubber skin that partially covers the cobot also ensure that the machine operators feel safe and can work in close contact with their robot colleague without fear.

The FANUC cobot unloads finished parts from the Nakamura WTS-150 and removes remnants from the bar feeder. It can even perform an unmanned ghost shift. Thanks to the high process stability, the daily availability of the lathe was increased to up to 96 percent.

The installation of the cobot and the initial programming of the tasks to be performed were carried out by experienced technicians from Wick AG. The system house from Küssnacht in Switzerland has been developing automation solutions for small and medium-sized companies for around 20 years.