RAMPF Dosiertechnik and KUKA celebrate ten-year partnership

They vacuum carpets, mow the lawn, milk cows and put up fences. Robots today are able to perform tasks which would have been inconceivable ten years ago. And they have become indispensable to the field of automation in today’s industrial production landscape. But do they work as efficiently as they could? RAMPF Dosiertechnik and KUKA Roboter have answered this question with a series of innovative integral solutions. For a decade now, the two companies have been linked by a strategic partnership and offer dispensing systems with integrated automation – even for small batch sizes.

The perfect symbiosis: A KUKA robot with integrating mixing system from RAMPF Dosiertechnik.

The robot as an indispensable helpmate, here seen loading a double dispensing system with components.

Automatic dispensing for different industries (courtesy of KUKA Systems).

Precisely positioned glue application using flexible “KS Multiflex” sensor coupling (courtesy of KUKA Systems).

Innovations in robotics have made automation solutions affordable across all sectors of industry (courtesy of KUKA Systems)

The trend towards “adaptive automation” is confronting both plastics processors and robot manufacturers alike. This concept poses a whole raft of different challenges such as widely fluctuating batch sizes, increasing variation in terms of components and short product life cycles. All of these call for coherent concepts designed to optimize process sequences. “Mechanical engineering experts should not be afraid to reach out across the void and make contact”, is how the Head of Sales and Marketing at RAMPF Dosiertechnik, Hartmut Storz, sees the most important starting point for any productive cooperation. Storz looks back over the past ten years with pride. “We have successfully implemented around 40 projects with KUKA, predominantly in the fields of electrical and automotive engineering and health care. And the trend towards cooperation is growing with each passing day”, adds Storz. Particularly when it comes to gluing and foaming complex three-dimensional components with inclines of over 45° or application points with difficult access, his company sees automation as the way forward. Over the years, the experts have acquired comprehensive expertise in the programming of robots which allows automatic systems to be “brought to life”. This generally happens within the framework of initial sampling processes in the RAMPF Application Engineering Department. RAMPF low-pressure systems are suitable for use with wide-ranging different one and two-component materials – whether silicone, polyurethane or epoxy resin. The spectrum of characteristics ranges from liquid to pasty and from highly viscous to foamed.

Short cycle times, lower investment costs
There are two possibilities for combining plastics processing with automation. Variant one: the mixing system is fastened at the robot which moves the mixing system over the component. Variant two: The robot moves the component under a stationary mixing system. Depending on the application, both solutions can also be used in parallel. The six-axis design of the KUKA robots allows a widely diverse part spectrum to be implemented, even when working with small batch sizes. The six axes also permit optimum coordination between mixing system and automation. The exceptionally lean design of the RAMPF MS-C mixing head with its short dispensing needles adjusts perfectly to the geometry of the component, so allowing the use of extremely short needles. This enhances process reliability and also saves costs. “Using robots in the field of dispensing technology permits investment savings of around 20 per cent compared to automation using linear axes. What’s more, the perfect symbiosis between robot and mixing system means we are able to achieve extreme proximity to interfering edges”, explains Storz. After every dispensing process, the dispensing needle is additionally checked for deformation. The partnership permits the achievement of short cycle times, high reproduction accuracy and groove quality, culminating finally in series maturity. 

Individual solutions networked to become a complete system
“Plastic is a highly multifaceted material. Many companies working the field have developed and improved their own production processes year on year. Our mission is to network these high-performance systems to create automated complete solutions which adjust individually to customer needs”, explains Rüdiger Sonntag, Key Technology Manager Plastics at Kuka. This exceptional level of commitment is very much appreciated at RAMPF. Support for project processing, simulation of movement sequences and feasibility studies are naturally important elements of the partnership. The partners plan to transpose their joint successes for application in other fields. A system solution which has achieved a highly developed status in the field of electronics can also be applied as a successful concept in the packaging industry. As Sonntag puts it, there is no need to go on reinventing the wheel. The combination of individual solutions to create complete systems offers enormous potential, given that each product encompasses a large amount of hardware such as PLC (programmable logic controller) or safety technology. Complete solutions only require these components to be present once. Future product cells must be capable of responding flexibly to different batch sizes and variants. In addition, the use of software instead of hardware components permits the achievement of shorter cycle times. A robot can be put to work to move a gluing and dispensing system with the utmost precision and process reliability today, and tomorrow be deployed to perform other tasks such as mounting clips. This degree of flexibility used hand in hand with a camera solution permits components to be fed and processed in chaotic sequence using a conveyor system. This technology can be applied across different sectors of industry: Whether for rear lamps, solar panels, TVs, hobs or microwave doors – no matter whether large or small series operation is required, customer requirements can be implemented with the utmost economy. And importantly too: The system elements can be flexibly recombined for different applications.

Courage to make changes
The many years of cooperation between RAMPF Dosiertechnik and KUKA Roboter have produced a number of mould-breaking innovations which threw existing structures into question. Undeniably, the necessary changes demanded an enormous amount of commitment and staff motivation, heavy investment of financial and human resources and the courage to make changes. Exchanging ideas and experiences pushes up the level of creativity which flows into the development of new solutions, and creativity is something which is urgently needed in today’s economic environment. Now is the perfect time to break new ground.

RAMPF Dosiertechnik and KUKA Roboter: 10 years partnership