Quality inspection plays a crucial role in quality management, utilizing defined test criteria to check whether a product meets its quality standards. It guarantees not only the usage of the correct materials but also ensures that the final product meets the customer's expectations. It is therefore extremely important for the production process.
Despite its importance, quality inspection is increasingly facing challenges: It is considered particularly monotonous and uncomfortable. To attain a consistent standard, repetitive movements are often required to be executed hundreds of times in a consistent manner. Factors such as constant pressure or a consistent sequence of movements are crucial for this.
Anyone who has ever carried out highly repetitive work knows that this continuity is difficult to achieve. After a while, fatigue sets in, which has a negative impact on the workflow. This leads to errors that quality inspection cannot afford to make: the risk of product defects being carried through the entire production process and the customer ultimately holding a defective product in their hands is too high.
At the same time, monotony has a negative impact on the recruitment of skilled workers. In times of skills and labor shortages, it is becoming increasingly difficult to attract workers for uncomfortable work.
Robot automation as the key
By using robots to automate quality control, companies kill two birds with one stone. The mechanical colleagues can perform the same movements continuously. As they do not get tired, there are no deviations. No breaks are required either. This enables round-the-clock production. Thanks to the reduced workload, employees can also concentrate on more varied components of quality management.
Agile Robots also relies on these advantages and trusts in its own automation solutions. The idea came about when Nicolas Hagspiel, Quality Assurance Specialist at the Kaufbeuren production site, was manually inspecting several parts with a handheld probe. He decided to hand over the task to the Yu 5 Industrial , which now holds the 630 gram probe.
"Previously, I always carried out the quality check by hand. This often took several hours and was quite tiring in the long run," explains Nicolas. "Then we decided to automate the process with our own solutions. Since then, I can already start with the evaluations while the robot carries out further quality checks in the background."
The application that Nicolas implemented was also on show at automatica 2023 in Munich. It impressed with its consistent, high-precision results quickly gained widespread popularity.
Standardization through continuity
Uniform processes are necessary to achieve uniform results. As humans cannot fully reproduce their movements, deviations are inevitable. This is where the Yu 5 Industrial comes in: Thanks to its 5 kg payload, it can hold and guide the measuring probe effortlessly. It achieves a repeatability of up to 0.05 mm and performs measurements in the micrometer range. This corresponds approximately to the thickness of a human hair. This precision is supported by state-of-the-art sensor technology. It helps to ensure that the probe always touches the designated testing areas with the same pressure.
Despite its wide range of use, the application is compact and can be easily integrated into the existing production process. This effective use of space also benefits from the robot's compact base plate, allowing it to operate in confined production environments. Thanks to its 6 axes and 1000 mm reach, it is able to make maximum efficient use of this area. This means that objects in the immediate vicinity of the robot can be inspected just as reliably as those further away.
With our robot handling the inspection, I can proceed with the evaluations and conduct additional quality checks simultaneously.
Leading by example
"I prefer to do some tasks more than others. I think most people feel that way. Thanks to the support of our robot, I can now concentrate on the more varied aspects of my job," explains Nicolas Hagspiel. "As a Quality Assurance Specialist, I have a whole range of tasks. Manual quality inspection only covers a small - but extremely time-consuming - part of this. Once I had programmed the robot, it now carries out the quality inspection largely independently."
Many specialists in the field of quality management feel the same way as Nicolas. Thanks to modern automation solutions, they can once again focus on more value-adding activities. This not only increases productivity, but also boosts employee satisfaction - and could make a major contribution to increasing the attractiveness of various professions in the long term and counteracting the shortage of skilled workers.
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About the author: Henner Brandes
As a Communications Specialist, Henner Brandes supports the corporate communications of Agile Robots. He is dedicated to presenting robotics topics in a practical, clear, and engaging manner, catering to all levels of expertise. He accomplishes this by collaborating closely with Agile Robots' technical experts. Furthermore, Henner leverages his extensive industry experience, which has been closely connected to robotics and technical communication since the beginning of his career.