In the past, it has been very difficult to automate high mix and low volume. Most robot solutions available in the industry have been made with traditional technology and above all for high volume production with specially built robot cells that are made to handle few products in many shifts for many years. Now there are new solutions that provide flexibility – flexible robots.
More flexible solutions are needed to automate small series and high mix and low volume production, as well as meet the needs for flexibility that even large OEMs and Tier1 see in their future needs that go towards larger product mixes.
Many companies want to automate small series production, but it has been difficult to automate high mix and low volume for several reasons. See below:
New technology opens up new opportunities for flexible automation, such as
- fast and easy programming
- mobile robots
- safety solutions without fences even at high speeds and high loads
- flexible gripdon
- full manual access to the machine
New technology opens up new possibilities for flexible automation, an example is OpiFlex flexible mobile robot cell with simple programming and safety solution without a fence, see video below
