Guangzhou Li Gong Industry Co., Ltd. (Guangzhou Li Gong), founded in 1985, researched and manufactured AIoT machines, including cobot unattended system, unmanned autonomous mobile robot and edge computing equipment. In 2018, Guangzhou Li Gong began to design a cobot-based solution that integrated the cobot of Universal Robots (hereinafter referred to as UR) into an intelligent loading and unloading platform - CoSi unattended cobot (hereinafter referred to as CoSi), reducing the input of labor cost, improving the efficiency and yield, comprehensively improving the safety of the station, and achieving the effect of freeing manpower, reducing cost and improving efficiency.
Loading and unloading is a repetitive and boring job that can lead to repetitive strain injury, or human error. Therefore, Guangzhou Li Gong has been looking for automation solutions to improve quality, consistency and production speed, thus expanding the production capacity.
The complex robot programming language, the daily switching between different workpieces, and the huge guard fence are all obstacles Guangzhou Li Gong has previously encountered in its use of industrial robots. With the continuous increase of customer orders and frequent daily switching between different workpieces, Guangzhou Li Gong needs a set of more flexible and efficient solutions.
Guangzhou Li Gong set its sights on collaborative automation. After multiple considerations, Guangzhou Li Gong decided to integrate UR5, UR10 and UR16e cobots into its intelligent loading and unloading platform.
Guangzhou Li Gong is an enterprise with no sales personnel and only a small project team to follow up the project. Nevertheless, they have established a good cooperative relationship with every customer, and has won the global best partner award for customers in different industries for many times, all depending on the intelligent manufacturing of the factory. CoSi is one of the intelligent solutions developed by Guangzhou Li Gong, which can automatically load materials to the equipment without tedious programming, so as to achieve multi-category, small-batch, flexible and discrete production.
CoSi series has 6 solutions, all of which can match CNC milling (such as five-axis machining center), CNC turning (double-spindle turning center), EDM and Coordinate measuring machine (CMM), and integrate corresponding UR cobots, including UR5, UR10 and UR16e according to different task requirements. Even the largest UR16e cobot, with a base mounting diameter of only 19cm, can be tightly integrated into a complete set of equipment.
Adam Sobieski, General Manager of UR ChinaIn the traditional upgrading and transformation, the manufacturing industry will encounter the following problems: the difficulty and complexity of the whole robot programming technique; the limitation of the original factory space; the potential safety hazards. The advantages of UR cobots can exactly solve these problems.
Li Weichong, CEO of Guangzhou Li Gong, said, “we used to need a colleague in front of each CNC to follow up the loading and unloading of products. It is completely different after development of CoSi series that integrates UR cobots. We only need one colleague for five CNC machines, freeing up manpower. Moreover, CoSi conforms to the international safety standard of man-machine collaboration and achieves safe man-machine collaboration without additional guardrails. If the machine is shifted due to a collision, it will stop and sound an alarm. Our colleagues are more secure to collaborate with robots.”
UR cobot programming is intuitive, and even employees without experience in robot programming can quickly get started after training. This is also an important reason for quick deployment of CoSi. Especially after using CoSi XOS system, it usually takes only 15 minutes to deploy CoSi to the corresponding machine tool and start loading and unloading. Moreover, the workpiece replacement and production line switching can be completed within 1min at the soonest.
The repeated positioning accuracy of UR cobot with CoSi unattended cobot is 0.03mm and the accuracy of CoSi robot with CoFi clamping fixtures of Li Gong can be up to 0.015mm, fully meeting the requirements of precision flexible production, greatly reducing the error rate and improving the efficiency.
“We don't need to hire extra operators for the equipment. For example, take 6 CNC machines as an example. Originally, one colleague was required for 2 CNC machines, 9 colleagues in total required in 3 shifts. Now, only 3 colleagues are required in 3 shifts with CoSi unattended cobot. In addition, for UR cobot deployment, it is not required to hire robot experts for programming or to buy guard fences, reducing the cost of technology investment. All of these will help us transform into a smart factory faster and more smoothly," stated Li Weichong.
Each customer has different production lines, different working environments, and different requirements. Therefore, UR works closely with distributors and system integrator partners to customize suitable applications for customers and innovate UR+ solutions. UR+ integrates the industry's large ecosystem and cobot "expertise" to provide users with powerful peripherals and application suites. Users can apply UR+ application suites and components certified by UR for faster automation processes.
Li Weichong pointed out, “With UR+, beginners become experts. The software we developed at UR+ can turn decades of experience of a master into mathematics and then into a program. What we need is only to open the arm pendant, open the UR+ program, and input the hardware to be placed, such as clamping force parameters, labeling parameters, etc. All quantifiable standards and repeatable executions make automated manufacturing and intelligent manufacturing easy and efficient.”
Li Weichong, CEO of Guangzhou Li Gong Industry Co., Ltd.With UR+, beginners become experts. All quantifiable standards and repeatable executions make automated manufacturing and intelligent manufacturing easy and efficient.
Li Weichong adds: "UR cobot is safe and easy to use; the pioneering UR+ could lead to faster deployment and return on investment. As the developer and application user, Guangzhou Li Gong can benefit from it, and that's why we firmly choose UR as our partner. We will also continue to explore the possibility of adopting more UR cobots, or integrating them into new application platforms.”
The global cobot market has grown nearly tenfold in the past five years, at 30% growth each year. Unattended loading and unloading is one of the main contents of the cobot in industrial applications. In China, there are more than 2 million CNC machines, which means a market of 100 billion level.
Adam concluded, "The cobot has great potential and development power in the field of CNC application and has a promising future.”
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