two welding processes are completed . An employee re-moves the finished products and replaces them with two new ones . “ One weld-ing process takes less than a minute ,” enthuses Bernd D . Euschen , managing director of Verzinkerei Sulz GmbH . Depending on the type of steel base plates , Euschen calculates that 5,000 to 10,000 components are galvanized per month .
Automation brings production back to Germany
In the past , Euschen reports , these assemblies were delivered to the galvanizing plant with welds of varying quality . But there were also changing subcontractors responsible for this and sometimes welding was done by hand , sometimes with robots . For this purpose , the customer had the components transported by truck to Eastern Europe for welding . After welding , the truck transported the welded assemblies to the Black Forest , to the Sulz galvanizing plant , for galva-nizing , assembly and shipping . “ So our customer had to send 40 tons on the road twice a week ,” Euschen reports .
Shortage of skilled workers in SMEs : automation pays off
The initial assessment is positive : “ We had calculated that it would take 2.5
years to achieve a return on investment , but we are confident that we will have achieved this after one and a half to two years . Because the fact that we can now also weld is now bringing us additional galvanizing orders . We ’ ve been able to strengthen our core processes .” In times of a shortage of skilled workers , Euschen finds that there is no way around automa-tion for many small and medium-sized companies . “ You can say quite clearly : the invest-ment costs are manageable , but the opportunity to take the first steps with it , build up know-how and land the first good customer orders is very high .” Christoph Welle from KIWI-Automations GmbH & Co . KG has been a system partner of KUKA since 2016 and implemented the solution for the galvanizing plant : “ For us as a system builder , this project is a very good pilot project to show other companies that getting started with automation does not have to be difficult . That you don ’ t have to be inhibited , but can slowly grow into it , even as a small company .” This solution also benefited from the fact that KIWI-Automa-tions already works with many companies in the sheet metal processing industry and is very familiar with the sector . In this way , the right solution was found for the Sulz galvaniz-ing plant and its customer .
About KUKA
KUKA is a global automation corporation with sales of around 4 billion euro and around 15,000 employees . The company is headquartered in Augsburg , Germany . As one of the world ’ s leading sup-pliers of intelligent automation solutions , KUKA offers customers everything they need from a single source . From robots and cells to fully automated systems and their connectivity in markets such as automotive with a focus on e-mobility & battery , electronics , metal & plastic , consumer goods , e-commerce , retail and healthcare .
Read all the details about the welding cell at the Sulz galvanizing plant here : https :// www . kuka . com / galvanizing-plant _ welding-robot
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