Coventry-based Arrowsmith Engineering — a precision turning, milling and grinding specialist — has invested in a high-performance Doosan collaborative robot (cobot) cell supplied by Mills CNC Automation (www.millscnc.co.uk).

This is part of a wider investment made by Arrowsmith to increase its productivity levels and maintain a competitive edge.

The cell comprises a Doosan DNM 4500 vertical machining centre (equipped with a fourth-axis unit) and an M0617 cobot with a 1.7m reach radius and 6kg payload capacity (equipped with a Schunk Co-act EGP-C electrically driven two-finger parallel gripper).

The cell is being used to ramp up production of a precision engine part that Arrowsmith makes for customers in Spain and the USA.

Operating 24/7 (including ‘lights out’ running), it enables the company to supply these customers with 200 parts every month.

The use of a collaborative robot has had a dramatic impact on productivity and machine shop efficiency, eliminating the need to invest in another machine tool.

Managing director Jason Aldridge said: “The cell has significantly increased capacity levels and is helping us capitalise on the 20% growth that Arrowsmith has experienced over the last 12 months — growth that has seen our annual turnover soar to £7.5 million.

"Some manufacturers are reticent about investing in automation and believe that it has a negative impact on jobs; I don’t subscribe to this view.

"If anything, automation makes us more competitive and successful, enabling us to recruit more people into skilled jobs.”

Arrowsmith has recently approached Mills CNC Automation to investigate the potential for automating more processes at its 20,000ft² facility.

Discussions to date have included the feasibility of investing in a Doosan cobot to serve two machine tools — creating a flexible automated manufacturing cell — as well as the potential of a cobot to undertake part-inspection operations.