Handling Robot End of Arm Tooling Modular Framing

[jvb2012]

Looking for alternatives to a welded steel construction handling jig frames that we currently use. In the past we have used Bosch Rexroth, but had troubles due to poor repair-ability in downtime situations.
Found a video with a hexagonal modular system. see link. Does anyone know who makes this product?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYKg9-T2eNU#t=159

 

[BillPSU]

Repair-ability what does it mean to you. You could have a complete replacement jig available and swap out and have minimal downtime. You probably have the prints available for the jigs and could do some forecasting about the various components and have the parts available for replacement. With continuing experience you could get to the point you could do predictive downtime and replace parts before they fail.

What does it cost to have this process down for 1 hour? Down for 8 hours? Down for 24 hours? You need to review all the necessary processes occurring inside the placement processes and determine downtime caused by internal problems to the process. You will be surprised after you review the data. Your current assumptions may point you in the wrong directions. Use the data to drive your decisions.

Bill

 

[jvb2012]

We do not often carry full replacement jigs for our handling robots. (we would need a very large warehouse as we have ~900 robots in house, admittedly not all handling, but still a lot) Also would be massive expenses when re-tooling. We do carry a lot of brackets and minor sub-parts, but these aren't always sufficient.
We currently calculate in the range of $10/sec for the first hour or so, then we start impacting other process and it grows rapidly after that. Mainly we like to get it working in the meantime, then fix it on graveyard shift. Often means welding a new bracket after an impact and dealing with the related quality problems while running.

Saw the video and had never seen that type of modular framing was wondering if any one had any information on it. It's something we have never used before.