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Collaborative Robots Help Optimize Assembly Line at Ford Romania
Ford Motor Company in Romania was looking for solutions to enhance its manual workforce and generate added value to the manufacturing process. In doing this, the company realized the need for new automation solutions that offered space savings, portability, easy collaboration with people, and a fast return on investment (ROI).
Ford Romania installed four 22-lb payload cobots from Universal Robots. The “UR10” collaborative robots were integrated alongside employees on the assembly line, taking over repetitive tasks.
One cobot performs the greasing of the camshaft followers, another fills the engine oil, and a third checks the engine with a UV light and a camera for any oil leakage. The fourth is used for tests and training. These cobots do not require a human operator’s intervention unless a change occurs in the usual processes.
Collaborative robots offer many opportunities due to the complexity of processes they can easily accomplish, and their ability to work side-by-side with humans. These are key factors that contributed to Ford's decision to make a long-term investment in collaborative robot technology.