Villeroy & Boch, a German producer of some of the world’s finest porcelain, has fully automated the process using industrial robots from ABB. In order to ensure smooth production, the company has complemented those robots with ABB Robot Care – a customised service contract for a fixed price and a great value
Over the years, Villeroy & Boch has strived to maintain its reputation for high quality porcelain while achieving cost-efficient production and high productivity. With this goal in mind, the company has been automating production using ABB industrial robots since 2001 and now has a total of 64 robots in its factory in Torgau, Saxony, Germany. One of the main reasons Villeroy & Boch has decided to continue partnering with ABB is the high level of usability and flexibility built into each and every ABB robot. So it was no surprise in 2014 that the company furthered its relationship with ABB by choosing six new IRB 2600 robots to replace the oldest of Torgau’s robots after they had served an average of 85,000 operating hours each.
“We needed a simple means of re-teaching and correction given that ceramics has unique characteristics,” says Randolf Maass, plant manager for the company’s Torgau factory. “Our production needs change all the time and no production process is 100 per cent identical to another.”
Deflashing with millimetre precision
The Torgau factory is home to Villeroy & Boch’s high-pressure die casting competence centre. The casting process allows sophisticated shapes to be produced in one piece. After completion of the casting cycle, ABB IRB 2400 robots maneuver the parts and place them onto a conveyor belt, which takes them to a machining station. In the machining station, flashing is removed and the surfaces are smoothed with sponges. This processes makes up the ‘finishing’ steps.
The space-restricted machining cells are equipped with slim IRB 2400L robots with a long reach of 1.8 metres. Moving the raw, still unfired parts around a spindle and across different sponges requires a high degree of precision. In Torgau, ABB robots not only unload the high-pressure die casting machines and do the finishing, they also load the glazing machines and apply the company’s mark on the bottom of the products.
To ensure high uptime and maximised production of the line, Villeroy & Boch relies on services from ABB Robotics such as Robot Care. “Robot Care allows us to plan our maintenance costs and gives us 24/7 access to parts and service technicians. Robot Care is the all-around carefree package for our customers,” says André Dehlan, regional account manager for service-sales robotics, ABB. “One of the features of a Robot Care service agreement is our extended warranty, which means that customers can extend the standard warranty period. Together with a planned preventive maintenance schedule, ABB takes the responsibility for optimum operations while the customer can focus on his core business, ” he adds.
But this service agreement is much more than just a preventive maintenance and repair service. “With ABB’s Remote Service we are in permanent contact with the customer,” says Dehlan. “We continuously monitor the robot system health and inform the customer immediately in case of a condition change.”
“Robot Care allows us to plan our maintenance costs and gives us 24/7 access to parts and service technicians,” says Maass. “In the case of a plant standstill, we can rest assured that ABB is working on a solution and is on its way to reducing the standstill to an absolute minimum.” Besides the Remote Service monitoring and the emergency services, the ABB service offering includes an annual maintenance and inspection of all robots. In addition, customers receive a monthly report on the operating condition of their assets and can access detailed information via the ABB MyRobot homepage.