Robot helps clinch export order

Morris Brothers is a producer of concrete moulding equipment and received an enquiry from a company in Turkey. The customer needed a 3-station press capable of manufacturing lots of large concrete slabs.

A key part of the moulding process in this application was the demoulding process where completed slabs of formed concrete are removed from the press and placed onto an adjacent pallet. With a typical individual slab weight of 9.5-12.5kg, and with up to 4,500 slabs in need of demoulding and placing onto pallets in each 9 hour shift, it became clear to Morris Brothers that a call to Kawasaki Robotics was a priority. 

In this application, the demoulding operation required each slab to be picked up using vacuum holders in the horizontal plane. The slabs are lifted and then rotated through 90° into the vertical as the robot arm moves across to the adjacent stacking pallet, where they are placed vertically into storage and transportation racks. 

The Kawasaki Robotics ZX-165U robot was the most appropriate choice: a heavy-duty machine which offered the speed and precision required, and which was easily capable of lifting the weights on the specification sheet. Kawasaki’s ZX-165U robot is a 6 axis unit, with a reach of 2.651 metres. It features a rotating wrist which, even when fully laden, can rotate at 260°/sec while delivering guaranteed repeatable accuracy (at maximum reach) of +/- 0.3mm.

Using this particular model of robot also provided Morris Brothers’ new customer with future-proofing. Because the robot would be working well within its design specification, the customer could also use the robot, should it be required at any point in the future, for even heavier loads, or on different tasks, and at increased speeds with minimal reprogramming. 

Morris Brothers new concrete moulding machine, complete with Kawasaki Robot, was delivered to the customer well inside the agreed delivery time and is now producing thousands of concrete slabs a week at the plant in Turkey.

Mick Humphries, Morris Brothers says: “We have, over the years, worked with many robot suppliers. But some time ago we settled on Kawasaki as our preferred provider. They have earned their place in becoming our first port of call for all robot-related applications now. In addition to providing good quality equipment, their attitude, engineering skills and confidence to let us do as much – or as little – of the design and integration as we want to ourselves has been of significant assistance to us.”