When my father was a little boy on the farm in the 30s and 40s, his parents rarely, if ever, saw a doctor. If a doctor was ever needed, he generally just gave his remedy and the patient took it. End of story.
Today, the best doctors are known by the harmony of the doctor-patient relationship. Working together with a positive attitude toward better health makes a doctor successful and the patient healthier.
In manufacturing and assembly factories across the country, the best engineers are migrating to vendors who work together with their customers. Vendors who bring a particular expertise and a collaborative attitude to the solution are more effective in bringing the healthiest manufacturing outcome.
Visumatic Industrial Products, Inc is the developer of the Visumatic Screwfeeder® technology. Over the years, Visumatic has earned a reputation for working with customers to meet challenging assembly needs by applying their technology and collaboration to the problems at hand.
Last year Phillips Plastic Corp, in conjunction with Visumatic, brought together the highest level of automatic assembly processes available today. Using the most forward robot technology available from Adept Technology, Inc, Visumatic implemented an assembly solution with Phillips that provided an unprecedented level of manufacturing capability.
"The biggest contributor to an effective installation is the understanding that we''re working together to solve problems. We don''t go into projects with the idea of ''here is a pill, take this and you''ll feel better,''" says Visumatic''s Tom Rougeux, sales manager. "Each challenge has two components -- theirs and ours. Our mutual ability to find solutions to these challenges by working together has been excellent."
An Adept Cobra 600 robot forms the basis of this assembly advancement. "We share the same paradigm with our suppliers as we do with our customers. We behave as if we''re a part of Adept''s company when we offer their technology because we know we have their seamless support. The ''product'' is not just the robot and excellent software, it''s the people behind that, too," says Rougeux.
"Visumatic''s ''VIPer'' is a ''screwfeeding and driving robot.'' Because of the extraordinarily high level of functional integration, it could never be considered ''a robot with a screwfeeder,''" continues Rougeux. "The totality of function, design, and capability is the result of our 45+ years of experience in this industry. Our outstanding partnership with Adept is a value multiplier with the customer as beneficiary. If America is going to stay competitive, smart assembly systems such as the VIPer are going to be key to maintaining that manufacturing competitiveness and excellence in the U.S."
And the VIPer is smart. With five fully transducerized axes, each of them N.I.S.T. traceable, closed loop with data logging, it contains everything today''s advanced quality control measures require. The VIPer''s cost is equally impressive because it approximates one fully burdened man-year, depending on the level of sophistication required or desired in the delivered solution. The package is available to end users and the special machine builder market, either as a fully programmed module or as an integrate-able component to a larger system.
"What makes all this technology affordable is the same thing that makes it possible: manufacturing and technology advancements. Adept has done a fabulous job setting the pace for the robotics industry with their acquisition of key companies and the integration of those acquisitions into their existing world-class product offering. Visumatic is simply part of that continuum by our use of those technological advancements. The result is a tremendous product offering that''s helping a premier manufacturer like Phillips Plastics Corp stay in business and compete at the highest levels," says Rougeux.
The VIPer provided Phillips an assembly station that accommodates many styles of product for different customers around the world. Phillips had already owned several Visumatic handheld screwfeeders used at this station. These handheld systems require an operator.
Installation time is less than 0.8 seconds per screw, including the moves the robot makes. Because of Phillips'' growth and the installation of the VIPer at this station, existing operators previously installing the screws are working in other areas to boost overall factory productivity. The VIPer also saves repetitive motion injuries and operator fatigue on this line, which contributed to some loss of production, although difficult to quantify. Because it is easily configurable to future models and provides such a high degree of assembly qualification, it makes it easier for Phillips to compete and win future projects.
Rougeux credits Phillips for giving them a chance to prove out the new technology: "It certainly is no small credit to Phillips'' engineers that they made it possible to implement this technology. They used the same screws and thought about their assembly operations as a part of their design process. They deserve a lot of credit and I think in some ways demonstrate that, much like Adept and Visumatic, there is a higher level of operational paradigm which allows them to be successful. That means working together with their vendors so that everyone is successful. This wasn''t an easy assembly to automate and would have been much more difficult without the close cooperation of the customer.
"While other companies in this industry spend a great deal of money advertising themselves as innovators, only Visumatic has the experience of innovation with our Locking Bit for handheld systems and now the VIPer. We get that experience and the opportunity to offer solutions such as this to the market because of our relationships, both with our customers and suppliers.
"Yesterday it was the Locking Bit that made manual assembly much, much faster and set the industry moving forward in the handheld market. Almost all companies in the industry have tried to mimic the action of the Locking Bit, but none has the technology. Today the VIPer is an important solution to the more automated requirements of our manufacturing economy. As more and more solutions are put into the field, you''ll see others attempt to create the same result, I''m sure."
The screw feeding and driving market is a mature market without a great deal of innovation. Visumatic owes a debt of gratitude for its growth over the past four decades to manufacturing companies who call on Visumatic time and again to meet their needs.
"We feel it''s our corporate responsibility to now push the envelope of assembly innovation and technology in our industry. One of the results of this push is the VIPer, which allows American manufacturers to continue to be successful -- which in turn contributes to our success."
Working together is the hallmark of Visumatic and it''s clear with the wide job descriptions of engineers in manufacturing, having that focus is critical to survival. The next time you consider going to the doctor, think about working together to manage your health. The next time you think about solving an assembly need, consider the vendor and whether or not you''re just buying a product or needing a solution.