SAM-e – the Smart Modular Automation System

SAM-e: The smart automation and modular system

Our partner company SPIE ESCAD Austria took over the conception, development, implementation, and integration for the modular cobot system “SAM-e”.

Challenge and Objective

Greiner Assistec serves clients with highly individualized projects. However, in the past, to present tailor-made solutions, Greiner Assistec either had to resort to manual assembly or acquire a specially developed machine. If anything changed in the client’s project or product, the machine could not be reused or only with great difficulty. Yet, the demand for individuality (small to medium batch sizes) remains high. At the same time, product life cycles are becoming shorter and shorter. This is a major problem, as the investment in a dedicated machine is hardly worthwhile anymore. Simultaneously, the shortage of skilled workers is intensifying. Employees who can and want to perform simple tasks are rare.

Solution

The SPIE ESCAD AUSTRIA team immediately began developing a concept. The biggest challenge was to meet all product-specific technical requirements. SAM-e was intended to be a versatile robot base that, with various toolkits, ensures the precise execution of an application as needed. Therefore, the goal was to find the right balance between modular flexibility and a uniform standard.

The first standard modules were developed, manufactured, and, due to the Corona pandemic, remotely commissioned for the Greiner Assistec site in Lersti (Romania).

Specifically, it involved a SAM-e module, a put-in-place module, and two toolkits. A SAM-e consists of a UR robot on a mobile base. With a SAM-e, two different products, with different applications, can be produced on different machines:

Application 1: Screw insertion
Application 2: Feeding injection molding machines and subsequent placing of the finished parts into the boxes

After the first realized project, three more SAM-e units with additionally newly developed standard modules were implemented in 2021, again for the Romanian site. In 2022, further SAM-e units were added, again with new modules for the Greiner Assistec sites in the Czech Republic and Poland. A long service life is ensured, as SAM-e was specifically designed to meet all future needs already today.

Benefits

In the future, SAM-e is to be used as a flexible helper at all Greiner Assistec sites. The “plug & automate” is intended to make processes more efficient and simpler. This way, clients from all Greiner Assistec sites can be served equally. Already, 7 SAM-e units and 14 modules with the UR10e are in use, providing added value not only to Greiner Assistec but also to their clients.

These strengths of our partner company SPIE ESCAD Austria were put to use

SPIE ESCAD Austria has been a specialist in automation and robotics systems for over seven years and was even awarded by Universal Robots in 2021 as the “Best Performing Certified System Integrator” in the entire DACH region.
SPIE ESCAD Austria is a full-service provider. We are able to provide comprehensive support to our clients. From project and product development, through automation questions, to the commissioning of the respective system.
Our experts at SPIE ESCAD Austria are flexible, highly committed, and creatively seek solutions. For us, there's no such thing as 'can't be done'!
We are not a traditional machine builder. Therefore, we don't have a rigid “standard procedure” that we must follow, but can respond individually to each client.
We cultivate long-term and sustainable partnerships, within which we pursue and improve common ideas – ensuring they endure long into the future.

About our client
Complexity is their drive. At Greiner Assistec, customized plastic parts, products, and components are developed together with clients and produced using selected technologies. Greiner Assistec is a production specialist and knows what matters. Their motto is “Mastering complexity”: With technological expertise and innovative services, Greiner Assistec supports its clients from product development onwards and helps them succeed with precisely coordinated processes.

Industry
Plastics processing and industrialization industry

We were looking for a partner who understands our need for flexibility in production and can rethink automation concepts. The SPIE ESCAD Austria team quickly understood our production and thus developed a concept perfectly tailored to us.
It remains a close, collaborative partnership that functions very well even in stressful situations. We receive support at any time, provided it is urgently needed in ongoing production.

Philipp Pirafelner
Global Senior Expert Technology Integration
Greiner Assistec

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