MVI Maskinfabrik, a Danish fabrication company, originally specialised in small-batch production with short lead times, but it subsequently decided to increase its manufacturing flexibility and introduce new products.

As the company started to receive larger orders, the management was faced with the decision whether to increase manpower to service them.

Investing in a collaborative robot from Universal Robots (www.universal-robots.com) proved to the be answer for this small business.

It instantly provided the increased capacity that the company needed, and it resulted in welding time being cut by 50%.

Factory owner Jens Christian Lægsgaard decided that the UR5 robot fitted the bill within 30min of seeing it in action.

It was subsequently integrated into the production line to replace an old welding robot that was four-times as big and far less flexible. It was also much cheaper than buying a dedicated welding robot.

A welding torch was mounted to the UR5, and Mr Lægsgaard taught himself how to operate the robot arm.

He took advantage of the robot’s intuitive programming and operation to get the device up and running in hours. Within days, it was welding fittings in batches ranging from 50 to several hundred.

Mr Lægsgaard said: “It takes about 15-20min to programme the robot arm for simple welding jobs, while more-advanced jobs take a little longer.

It has just finished a batch of 100, with 14 welds per fitting. That job took around 1.5hr to programme, and the robot completed each fitting in 1.5min.

“Manually, it would probably have taken 4min per part. The robot ensures that no time is wasted; with the UR5 robot, I can save 30-50% of the working time for each part by comparison with manual welding.”