SAM-e: The smart automation and modular system

For the modular cobot system “SAM-e”, our partner company SPIE ESCAD Austria took on the concept development, engineering, execution, and implementation.

Challenge and Objective

Greiner Assistec supports customers with highly customized projects. However, to present perfectly tailored solutions, in the past Greiner Assistec either had to rely on manual assembly or purchase a specially developed machine. If something changed in the customer’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 getting shorter and shorter. A major problem, because investing in a dedicated machine is hardly worth it anymore. At the same time, the shortage of skilled workers is intensifying. Employees who can and want to take on simple tasks are scarce.

Solution

The SPIE ESCAD AUSTRIA team immediately began working out a concept. The biggest challenge was meeting all product-specific technical requirements. SAM-e was to be a versatile robot base that, with various toolkits, enables an application to be carried out exactly as needed. The task was to find the right balance between modular flexibility and a consistent standard.

The first standard modules were developed and manufactured for the Greiner Assistec site in Lersti (Romania) and, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, commissioned remotely.

Specifically, this 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: Inserting screws
Application 2: Loading injection molding machines and then placing the finished parts into the boxes

After the first project was completed, three more SAM-e units with additional newly developed standard modules were implemented in 2021—again for the Romania site. In 2022, more SAM-e units followed, once again with new modules for the Greiner Assistec sites in the Czech Republic and Poland. Long service life is ensured, because SAM-e was designed specifically to already cover all future needs today.

Benefits

In the future, SAM-e is to be used as a flexible helper at all Greiner Assistec sites. “Plug & automate” is intended to make processes more efficient and simpler. This means customers can be served equally from all Greiner Assistec sites. Seven SAM-e units and 14 modules with the UR10e are already in use, providing added value not only for Greiner Assistec, but also for its customers.

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 recognized by Universal Robots in 2021 as the “Best Performing Certified System Integrator” across the entire DACH region.
SPIE ESCAD Austria is a full-service provider. We are able to support our customers holistically—from project and product development, to automation topics, right through to commissioning the respective system.
Our experts at SPIE ESCAD Austria are flexible, highly committed, and creatively search for solutions. Our motto: Nothing is impossible!
We’re not a traditional machine builder. That’s why we don’t have a rigid “one-size-fits-all” approach we have to follow, and can respond to each customer individually.
We cultivate long-term, sustainable partnerships in which we pursue and improve shared ideas—so they continue to stand the test of time in the future.

About our customer
Complexity is what drives them. At Greiner Assistec, tailor-made plastic parts, products, and components are developed together with customers and produced using selected technologies. Greiner Assistec is a production specialist and knows what matters. “Mastering complexity” is the motto: With technological know-how and innovative services, Greiner Assistec supports its customers from product development onward 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 developed a concept perfectly tailored to us.
It remains a close, collaborative partnership that works very well even in stressful situations. We receive support at any time whenever it is urgently needed in ongoing production.