A worker at an electronics manufacturing plant in Tennessee stands at an assembly station. He picks up a part for an electric motor and hands it to the worker next to him, who places it in a vice, picks up a wire cutter and trims the electrical wire leading into the motor before removing the motor and placing it on a conveyor belt where another worker waits to perform the next assembly task.
The first worker is human. The second is a robot. And so is the third.
Robot workers at Tennessee electronics factory
This isn’t science fiction. This is actually happening today at Scott Fetzer Electrical Group (SFEG), a medium-sized factory in Fairview, Tennessee, just outside of Nashville. And it’s a scenario that is repeating itself at manufacturing facilities all over the country.
The Future Is Here
Matthew Bush, SFEG’s director of operations, said the company turned to Universal Robots — a Danish company that specializes in automated solutions for manufacturing facilities — to help improve and streamline assembly of the small motors and electronic components built at the facility.
While it would have been too costly to rebuild the assembly line with stationary robots — such as those widely used at auto assembly plants — mobile robots that could collaborate with human workers to perform a variety of tasks provided a more practical solution.
The robots can pick, pack, place and test motors and components in collaboration with human workers. They can take over potentially dangerous tasks, do the heavy lifting, and perform repetitive tasks. that could, for example, cause carpal tunnel in their human counterparts.
That makes a difference when you need to cut 16,000 wires per day, a job that could easily lead to carpal tunnel in their human counterparts.
Mobile Technology
The robots have been fitted to pedestals with wheels, allowing them to travel to anyplace in the plant.
At SFEG, they work throughout the factory, doing everything from cutting out the initial metal blank from sheet metal, folding metal sheets into the forms, and even performing the final assembly of electrical components. Other robots operate turret presses and press brakes.
But rather than have one robot assigned to a single task, every robot in the plant can jump in and perform practically any task on the assembly line. And they work side by side with human workers.
While the robots weren’t cheap, Bush said he expects them to pay for themselves in labor savings within 12 to 14 months of their installation.