Scott Fetzer Electrical Group (SFEG; Fairview, TN). Supplied by Universal Robots USA Inc. (East Setauket, NY; Odense, Denmark), the collaborative UR robots have optimized production by 20%, taking over monotonous and potentially hazardous tasks from employees now reallocated to more rewarding jobs.
SFEG was formed in 2010 to bring together the capabilities
of three Scott Fetzer Company businesses: France Power So- lutions, Northland Motor Technology, and Kingston Products. Located on the outskirts of Nashville, the company designs and manufactures electrical power products, including trans- formers, power supplies, motion controls, and drive systems. When the first UR5 robot arrived at SFEG, it was quickly named “Waldo” inspired by the popular Where’s Waldo books featuring a friendly fellow that keeps appearing in new places among crowds of people. “One day, Waldo would be bending sheetmetal, the next day he would be performing pick-and-place tasks, and the third day we would take him to Manufacturing Day at the
local high school,” said Matthew Bush, director of operations at SFEG, a manufacturer of a wide range of electrical motors and components. The UR robots are a new type of robot classified as col- laborative due to their interactive design. Collaborative robots are easy to set up for a new task and feature built-in safety systems that enable the robot arm to automatically stop operating if it encounters objects or people in its route. Bush came across this new automation solution as he was looking for ways to make SFEG more competitive on the global scale, while taking more advantage of existing machin- ery. “One of our biggest challenges as a high-mix/low-volume producer is that most of our lines don’t run all the time. Trying to find a way to put robots on the line in the traditional sense was a very big challenge,” said Bush. “We wanted to build a mobile, flexible robot force, and the only way we would accomplish this was with a col- laborative robot. We only saw a couple of offerings and the
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AdvancedManufacturing.org 53
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