Thirteen person stove shop automates weld seam grinding on steel shells

Hand built wood burning stoves · Sanding and finishing · Vendor published

The job

Rondo Ringkachelofen GmbH near Pentling, Bavaria builds wood burning stoves largely by hand, and grinding the weld seams on the curved steel shells is described by the vendor as monotonous, arduous and time consuming. With demand up 100 percent in recent years, that step had become the constraint in a 13 person shop that could not simply hire another grinder. Working with integrator accell GmbH, the company put a FerRobotics Active Angular Kit on a robot with a tool changer and an integrated gripper, so one arm both handles the shell and grinds it. The published outcome is that the grinding staff were relieved of the task entirely.

The shop

FerRobotics publishes a 13 strong team. Shift pattern not published. Annual production volume not published. Production area not published.

The equipment

FerRobotics Active Angular Kit AAK 505 with tool changer and integrated gripper, using active compliance force control. Robot make and model not published. System integrator accell GmbH. Abrasive type and grit not published. Dust extraction not published.

The published numbers

100 percent grinding staff relief, published-by-vendor. 75 percent time savings, published-by-vendor. Grinding described as four times faster than manual, published-by-vendor. 33 percent savings on abrasives, published-by-vendor. Amortisation in less than 16 months, published-by-vendor, a vendor ROI claim with no cell cost, labor rate or volume published behind it. Demand growth of 100 percent in recent years, published-by-vendor. Cycle time per part not published. Parts per week or per year not published. Scrap reduction not published. Cell cost not published.

Where a source did not publish a figure, this entry says so rather than guessing.

What we would check before believing it applies to you

This is the most directly relevant profile in the sanding set for a small shop, and the interesting engineering decision is the tool changer plus integrated gripper: letting one robot both manipulate the shell and grind it is what makes a single cell affordable at 13 person volumes, but it also means the payload budget has to carry gripper, grinder and part at full reach, and that is exactly where these projects get resized upward late and blow the quote. A shop copying this should price the robot one size up before committing. The 33 percent abrasive saving is modest enough to be credible, and notably more believable than the 70 percent figures that appear elsewhere in this same vendor's casebook. What the numbers do not tell you is volume: with no cycle time and no annual parts figure published, the 16 month amortisation cannot be reconstructed or stress tested against your own throughput. Also consider the org risk that no case study mentions; in a 13 person shop the person who programs the cell is usually also running the business, so establish who owns the cell when that person is away, and budget for dust extraction and filter media.

Sources