Manufacturing of Hip Implants with Powerful Robot Cell

Initial Situation & Goals

Smith & Nephew is a globally operating medical technology company with more than 100 locations. One of them is Aarau: Here, more than 500,000 high-precision medical parts for orthopedics and sports medicine are manufactured annually with 250 employees.

The company was looking for a stable, safe pick-and-place solution to automate multi-machine operation. Previously, the workpieces (titanium hip implants) were manually inserted into the CNC machine and removed after processing.

A challenge was that the parts to be gripped could lie at an angle and be at different heights. The tight space constraints and the wide variety of references also posed limitations. An important point in the specifications was also workspace monitoring: A cell without a physical safety fence was desired.

The Solution

A modular R-Cobot Base Cell , equipped with FANUC Industrial Robots and multifunctional grippers, forms the heart of the mobile robot system. Dual Check Safety (DCS) from FANUC and two laser safety scanners create a virtual safety fence.

Within the processing area, a fast change/blow-off cycle can be run, significantly reducing machine downtime. Outside the machine, the travel speed is limited and safe. Thanks to self-start, which occurs after manually filling the parts supply, the system continues to operate automatically once an employee leaves the safety zone.

Intelligent functions, such as tactile grippers, re-grip station, and blow-off and pressing functions, make the mobile robot cell easy to operate. Our easy-to-use interface facilitates the teaching of new reference parts. And because it is a mobile cell, fixed with a precise quick-clamping system, it can be quickly removed for cleaning purposes.

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