Flexxbotics, delivering digital solutions for robot-driven manufacturing at scale, announced that Precision Metal Industries, a premier manufacturer specializing in precision sheet metal products, precision machining and complex mechanical or electromechanical assemblies, has selected Flexxbotics for advanced robotic machine tending to enable robot-driven manufacturing with autonomous process control in multi-machine processes for greater unattended operation, increased capacity, and even higher yields.
With Flexxbotics, Precision Metal Industries achieves a cellularized setup with a single robot managing multiple factory machines including a Haas vertical machining center with tool breakage sensors, Coordinate Measuring Machine (CMM) for in-line inspection along with deburring and cleaning blow-off stations. By increasing per shift throughput productivity and running an additional ‘lights-out’ shift each day, an overall production capacity increase of 125% is achieved with a 17:1 machine-to-man ratio.
Flexxbotics solution seamlessly connects the robot to each piece of equipment, coordinating the work so the robot has command and control of the machines in the workcell. Based on inspection results, closed-loop feedback corrections are provided to the CNC machine in real-time for autonomous process control to maintain continuous operation while achieving tight tolerances.
“Our customers demand precision quality and Flexxbotics takes advanced robot automation to the next level with autonomous process control,” said Greg Wilson Jr, Owner of Precision Metal Industries. “We especially like Flexxbotics ability to detect tool breakage and automate tool change to keep production running without downtime.”
Precision Metal Industries selected Flexxbotics based on the following criteria:
- Open connectivity and interoperability between the robots, CNC machines, inspection equipment, and other machinery
- In-line inspection for closed-loop quality with inspection results driving offset update adjustment corrections
- Intelligent Recovery™ capability with tool breakage detection and automatic tool swap without downtime or human intervention
- Deburring Operation to speed up production by enabling deburring to occur in parallel with CNC machining
- Analysis & Reporting including yield, utilization, and downtime reasons for continuous improvement initiatives
- Intuitive Human–Machine-Interface (HMI) for simplified operation without robot programming
- Solution flexibility to scale out across the factory and quickly add additional robots
Greg continues, “We were impressed with Flexxbotics full turnkey deployment services, which ensured our business goals and requirements drove the solution’s design.”
Precision Metal Industries, ISO 9001:2008, is a premier manufacturer specializing in precision sheet metal products, precision machining and complex mechanical or electromechanical assemblies. PMI makes custom missile containers, cabinets, electronics enclosures, chassis, medical equipment housing and many other parts and components for the Defense, Medical, Electronics and Avionics Industries.
Flexxbotics enables robot-driven manufacturing at scale. Flexxbotics solution digitalizes robotic production with autonomous process control for next generation smart factory environments. Flexxbotics breakthrough, the unique FlexxCORE™ technology, seamlessly connects and coordinates robots with existing automation equipment, IT systems and people.
“We understand that using factory robots at scale is increasingly critical to advanced manufacturers like PMI,” said Tyler Bouchard, CEO & Co-founder of Flexxbotics. “Achieving ‘lights out’ production takes more than just robots, it requires robotic process orchestration across the smart factory which is what Flexxbotics delivers.”
