It's Not R2-D2, But Robotics Is Aiding Many Converting Plants

Published: January 01, 2002, By Nsenga Byrd Thompson, Staff Edtor

To many of us, robots are straight out of a science-fiction future in which we sit back and let mechanical beings do all of our work. For converters, however, it's not all science fiction. In just about any converting process — presses, bagmaking, you name it — robotics is out there ready to make your plant more efficient.

So where does one begin evaluating the need for robotics, a technology that still is constantly changing. The first step is to take a good, hard look at how labor is performed in your plant.

“What they have to look at is their relative labor cost and time to achieve a specific task versus what a robot can do,” explains Tom Jacques, global business development manager at Paper Converting Machine Co., Green Bay, WI. “Primarily, what our customers look at is task complexity — how difficult is it for a person to do a task versus a robot?” The time difference is another factor, says Jacques.

He continues, “A lot of operator-based tasks vary greatly in the time they [require] because of a person's abilities or because people have different motivations on different days. You have to factor that into an operator-based changeover production line. When you get into robotics or machine-based changeover time, you have a consistent, reproducible changeover time, because you are letting the machine do that task.”

Some fear robotics is a means of eliminating labor on a production line, but Jacques explains, “The operator really becomes more of a technician, in the sense of not doing traditional tasks that you do on traditional machines. With robotics, they become more computer-based operators in most of these production lines. The operator doesn't get eliminated per se; the job just mutates into a more evolved job.”

As with all technologies, robotics has made significant strides in the past several years, including becoming more affordable and accurate. But the most significant change is probably in speed, says Michael Feeny, packaging sales manager at Windmoeller & Hoelscher, Lincoln, RI, who reports, “Robotic arms were notoriously slow in the past. In the ‘good old days,’ ten years ago or more, you were lucky to get ten units a minute [from a robot]. Now that has more than doubled.”

Improvements in controls have changed the efficiency of robotic equipment, according to Steve Ouimette, group manager for Louis P. Batson Co., Greenville, SC. “You can be more precise in the things you do with robots [today] because of servo controls and other innovations. [Robots] also have become less expensive and more attractive even to companies that can't afford to spend a lot of money, because of the…controls that are available now.”

Robots can significantly change a printer's job, notes Jacques. “When you take those tedious, repetitive tasks away, you let the operators concentrate on the ‘fun’ stuff — printing, keeping everything tuned, and making sure things run fine.”

Ouimette adds, “Robots increase the value of what each operator is contributing to the product. It allows more processes to be brought together that couldn't be otherwise.”

Sound too good to be true? It isn't, but it is important to take it one step at a time. Like all evolving technologies, robotics is more suited for some than for others. “Someone [with] a very low production rate, that maybe does one or two products, the same products all the time, that converter is probably well served by traditional equipment,” Jacques notes.

Feeny cautions, “I would advise not to go too far too fast, from a social aspect as well as the efficiency aspect. Some people think robotics is the answer for everything, and they've gone full speed ahead and got burned because robotics at this stage doesn't do everything that humans do. And it will be a long time before it can.”