HEISMANN Drehtechnik GmbH relies on Epson robots

Founded in 1918 in Velbert, HEISMANN Drehtechnik GmbH specialises in the development and manufacture of precision rotating parts.

The company focuses on large-scale production runs for automotive, mechanical and plant engineering, mobile hydraulics, white goods/household appliances as well as the electrical and safety industries. Around 130 qualified employees are ready to create optimally suitable solutions for industrial customers worldwide through individual consultation, planning and production.

Martin Gawenda, Managing Partner, explains: “Customer satisfaction and innovation are our top priority. We use our know-how to understand our customers’ needs precisely and to implement precise solutions for them. Our internal mechanical engineering also allows us to produce individual machines for the respective requirements.”

Since Heismann specialises in large production runs, the company has correspondingly large and efficient systems in operation. This is why such powerful machines are of central importance upstream and downstream, for example for loading and unloading. If, for instance, one of these points is too slow, or if it has to perform time-consuming movements due to an unsuitable design, the turning machine upstream may not be able to perform at its full capacity – if a machine responsible for feeding or removing parts is even more susceptible to malfunctions than average, this results in unnecessary downtime of the entire machine and a corresponding production failure.

A total of twelve Epson SCARA and six-axis robots of the RS, N and C series with different ranges and payloads are used at HEISMANN GmbH to load and unload the turning machines and also to guide the parts through quality control.

“We received our first Epson SCARA robot, an RS3, back in 2010,” explains Jacek Pietrek, Department of Mechanical Engineering at Heismann. “Today, the robot system is still in operation and has since handled well more than 31 million parts without any fault. Today, we have four additional spider SCARAs in the RS4 version in part feeding and removal, which together move around 16 million parts a year.”

The SCARAs feed the rotating parts into a tactile and optical quality test. The special design of the RS robots (Spider) Heismann offers a special advantage because, unlike other SCARA robots, there is no dead space in their workspace. The simple, cylindrical work envelope also allows fast travel along complex trajectories without time-consuming swivelling of the robot arm. This ensures short cycle times with minimum space requirements.

Quality testing also includes an optical and tactile evaluation of the rotating parts for remaining chips or cracks in the material. In order to achieve the required precision, the robots must therefore move the parts along the programmed trajectory quickly and precisely.

At Heismann, the seven Epson N2 robots currently take one of the turned parts from one of the turning machines and then position it on available pallets. The robot guide allows 100% testing of the parts with tactile and intelligent optical measuring devices. Thanks to its ‘foldable’ arm, the Epson N2 also has especially adapted geometry for use in compact rooms. In this robot, the first, second and third axes can be oriented parallel to each other so that the different axes can be reoriented in the smallest space. This robot is therefore also ideally suited for use in very small environments.

“The low space requirement of the machines was one of the central criteria when choosing them, in addition to the speed and precision of their movements,” explains Pietrek. “We specifically tried this palletising task with other types of robots, but either the degree of freedom of the arms was too low, so the movements were too complex and the cycle time could not be reached, or the machines could not manage with the space available. The Epson N2 is the ideal choice for us.”

With the many different and changing demands placed on robots, a powerful yet simple programming language, including an intuitive interface, is critical to building efficient, flexible systems. The Epson RC+ 7.0 development environment is particularly easy to use and, in addition to the basic Epson programming language for robots, also has various modules that can be added optionally, such as for industrial image processing, the Epson force sensor, the part feeding system or Epson ECP. The system also includes a package for simulating automation solutions so that, without even having installed one machine, reliable estimates are possible with regard to the cycle times to be achieved and the space required for the system. 

Pietrek commented: “Even for some, at first glance complex movements, only a few commands are required in the Epson programming language. As a result, new tasks and robot movements are also quickly programmed. In addition, Epson’s entire software ecosystem is very intuitive and easy to understand, so there is no need for any time-consuming training. The simulation environment of the Epson programming environment was of particular value to us, as it means we have found the optimal robot geometries and the best possible installation type with minimal effort.

Epson automation solutions give us access to flexible, precise and powerful solutions. Taking into account that the robots have been working for us for many years without disruption and with just normal maintenance cycles in an atmosphere contaminated by oil, we particularly appreciate their reliability.”

Further information at:

ww.epson.eu