The Modular Automation Expert Forum took place at KUKA College Siegen

Expert forum Modular Automation

The requirements on production are becoming ever greater: the number of variants is growing – batch sizes are shrinking. This poses major challenges, particularly for small and medium-sized companies. Automation solutions were presented at the expert forum “Modular Automation”.

March 23, 2018

Expert forum at KUKA College Siegen

An expert forum with the title “Modular Automation” was held at the KUKA College site in Siegen on 7 March 2018. Host KUKA and the trade journal “Automationspraxis” discussed with the participants how small and medium-sized companies can also get to grips with automation. The experts were drawn from the scientific community and automation companies and contributed well-founded, practice-oriented examples.

Modular automation solutions create added value

Unanimous verdict of the expert forum: With standardization and modularization, even applications with greater variety of parts can be flexibly automated – from robotics, gripper systems, assembly systems, feed systems and labeling systems to complete robotic cells. Already today, automation manufacturers offer a wide range of approaches making flexible automation possible for small and medium-sized companies at reasonable prices.

The automation of applications with a greater variety of parts can be countered by standardization.

Practice-oriented solutions for automation tasks

Winfried Geiger, Business Development Manager at KUKA Deutschland GmbH, demonstrated how preconfigured and coordinated KUKA ready2_use application packages enable easy automation. Prof. Dr.-Ing. Martin Manns from the University of Siegen reported on how small and medium-sized companies are introducing human-robot collaboration more and more in order to boost the productivity of manual workstations. The university is planning to implement joint projects with industrial partners.

The core competency of PÜSCHEL lies in standardized modular systems. For customers, the modular systems mean simplified design, assembly and maintenance. Rbc robotics has developed a modular automation solution, enabling the automation of feed systems, gantry solutions and machine linking, for example. The goal: to design easy, process-reliable and flexible workpiece handling for the metalworking industry, from blanks to finished parts.

Winfried Geiger presented how processes can be automated quickly and easily with the help of KUKA ready2_use packages.

The foundry version of the KR QUANTEC robot is protected from heat, corrosion, bases and acids through use of special coatings

KUKA robots remove undefined casting burrs

Heidenreich & Harbeck manufactures sophisticated castings. The company develops, casts and machines high-quality components in small and large batch sizes under the slogan “Quality in Casting”.

The-lightweight-building-robot-LBR-iiwa-supports-employees-in-bonding-processes

Lightweight robots support operators in adhesive bonding processes

Dürr uses two sensitive LBR iiwa robots from KUKA in final assembly. Without a safety fence, they perform key tasks in the application of adhesive beads. This improves quality, saves time and lowers u