Universal Robots Robotics Application: Tablet Touch Detection

Koyo Electronics Industry Co., Ltd. is a subsidiary of the JTEKT Group of Japan and has one of the world's largest market shares in the field of automotive steering bearings. To improve productivity, the company is equipped with Universal Robots' UR3 cobots. The quality of on-board products is demanding, but due to the high stability of the cobots, the company's products have not only improved in quality, but also increased productivity by 31%.

Challenge

Since its establishment in 1955, Koyo Electronics Industry Co., Ltd. has been developing, manufacturing, and selling a wide range of electronic devices that are both reliable and functional. For many products with high quality requirements, such as on-board electronic equipment, programmable logic controllers, rotary encoders, etc., facing more and more diversified market demand, how to improve the yield has become a difficult problem in front of the company.

The company first reviewed the tablet viewing process. During pre-processing, the operator assembles and visually inspects the product, and during post-processing, the operator operates the stylus on the touch panel to confirm that the device is responding to instructions. Mr. Katsuhiko Nakatani, Deputy General Manager of the Production Department, explains, "In general, these tasks are handled by three people. Due to some bottlenecks in the later stage, we reassigned some of the job content, but this broke the balance between pre-processing and post-processing. In order to improve the productivity of post-processing, we turned to Universal Robots cobots. ”

Koyo first learned about collaborative robots in 2017. Mr. Nakatani said, "Inaba Denki Sangyo Co., Ltd., the official distributor of Universal Robots, told us that the robot was very light and had a small footprint, so we didn't have to change the existing layout of the workshop. ”

Universal Robots Robotics Application: Tablet Touch Detection

　　The UR cobot has a safety function, such as a protective stop, and the ability to be surrounded by no protective fences, which is a core advantage.

Koyo Electronics arranged UR3 in the position of touch screen quality inspection. When you tap the touch panel with the UR3's stylus, if there is no quality issue, "OK" will appear and the green signal light will turn on. If an anomaly is detected, "NG" will appear on the display screen, the red signal light will illuminate, and the buzzer will continue to sound. The person in charge can immediately notice the anomaly and deal with it in a timely manner.

　　Mr. Atsushi Fujita, head of the Production Technology Department, said, "In order to ensure the safety of our employees, we have conducted a hazard assessment in accordance with the company's safety regulations. Since we are afraid of high-speed robots, we made some adjustments such as speed reduction when we first enabled UR3; The quality of work has improved because the work accuracy and stability of cobots are higher than those of humans. ”

It took about 3 months from the delivery of the robot to the system design, equipment, testing, handling various problems, and going live and operation. Connecting the robot to external devices such as PLCs and PCs is the most difficult step. "After about two weeks of trial and error, we set up our own system that doesn't rely on any external resources," Fujita said. In addition, the equipment for cobot fixing fixtures has been improved. At the beginning, due to the heavy gripper, the robot could not operate normally, and after many fine-tuning, the gripper was significantly easier to grip items.

As a result, the company created a fixture that, when the end effector was adjusted, could support all the touches needed to view the company.

Ms. Yuki Oshiba, who is in charge of the viewing process, explains, "Employees are prone to errors when using the touchscreen system, but I am satisfied that the cobot can do the job accurately. After pressing the on/off button, we were able to get out and do other jobs, so the productivity rate also improved a lot. In the event of an abnormal shutdown, the system will send an alarm, and the person in charge of production technology will come to check, so the production will not be interrupted, and we can rest assured. ”

In fact, the original 10-hour task could be completed in just 8 hours with Universal Robots. In addition, the improvement in work quality has also led to a 31% increase in productivity.

Not only that, but with Universal Robots, the company has also been able to get rid of its dependence on external resources and significantly reduce its costs for safe production. To Koyo's surprise, the investment could be recycled in just one year, so the company planned to install more Universal Robots in other production lines.

"For example, in the process of substrate processing, we are evaluating whether the cobot can transport the substrate from the previous process to the next. The post-processing position was originally staffed by two people, but with Universal Robots, only one person is needed to do the job. After the company allocates resources to other processes, the yield has been improved, and the deployment of this robot has also given us more determination to believe that the company will have a better tomorrow. ”

Universal Robots Robotics Application: Tablet Touch Detection

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