Sepro’s uplifting press meeting at Fakuma 2018 focused on its triumphant Experience Full Control message, taking judo as a metaphor for the capabilities of a Sepro solution, but the major player in robotic technology for plastics processing had more news to impart.
Sepro
CEO Jean-Michel Renaudeau explained that the notion of offering Full Control offers ideas for now, and ideas for the future and ties in well with the Collaboraissance chapter of Sepro’s development and growth, which the company celebrated at NPE 2018.
Since the last Fakuma, Sepro has achieved a great deal and is continuing its climb to become the world number one - and 2018 will be the sixth consecutive record year for the company - with more than 80 6-axis robots with VISUAL control sold in 2018, Open Integration on 12 IMM brands on 10 stands at Fakuma, more white labelling and co-branding, the launch of OptiCycle with 40 per cent faster cycle times and a new partnership to complement the Haitian agreement announced earlier in the year.
Renaudeau was excited to announce the conclusion of an agreement between Sepro Group and Tederic Germany GmbH to supply its full line of 3-, 5-, and 6-axis robots and sprue pickers to be sold in Tederic injection-moulding equipment packages offered in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Based in Dörth, Germany, Tederic Germany is the European sales arm of China-based Tederic Machinery Company.
“With this concept, Tederic Germany is pursuing innovation in the areas of energy saving, automation, precision and humanization, with the aim of creating more profitability for our customers,” said Mirko Schnur, Geschäftsführer, Tederic Germany. “The extensive Sepro product ranges - especially in automated processes, production cells and production lines - are an ideal complement to our customer-specific package solutions. The partnership with Sepro, therefore, is another important milestone in realising our vision of highest efficiency.”
“We share the vision of Tederic Germany to bring new options to its injection moulding customers, including access to a wide range of Sepro robots that integrate fully with IMM controls and are easy to program and operate,” added Jean-Michel Renaudeau.
Arrival of the Seprobot
New for Fakuma, Sepro is entering the collaborative robot (cobot) market with a “collaborative robot solution” that is quick and easy to deploy, lower in cost and more productive than most conventional cobots. Called Seprobot, the package combines a Yaskawa 6-axis robot with sensor and physical guarding in a fully integrated human safety system.
Although it operates in a guarded space, operators get safe access for feed-in and feed-out through openings protected by sensors, light curtains, or other safety devices. Most of the time, the robot operates at full speed, slowing down or stopping only when humans enter the guarded space and returning to full speed when they depart. This enables the Seprobot to operate two to three times faster than a typical cobot.
Seprobot
“We are looking to the future automation of our customer we want to find new solutions and new ideas for our customers,” stated Claude Bernard, Director of Product Marketing.
Looking to the future, Sepro predicts more than half of all robot systems will need to be open access, with humans sharing a workspace with robots.
“Making simple, repetitive applications with the robot, it keeps the value of the operators,” he said.
Speedy S5-25
Also racing into the Sepro family, the S5-25 Speed robot to help processors seeking a top-entry robot solution for fast-cycling injection-moulding applications. A new and faster variant of its S5-25 3-axis Cartesian robot, sized for machines from 120 to 450 tons, the S5-25 is part of the Sepro S5 line of high-performance 3-axis robots for complex applications. The Speed version has vertical (Z-axis) stroke speed that is 50 per cent faster than the standard S5-25, ensuring robot in/out times under one second and overall moulding cycles under four seconds.
Sepro
S5-25 Speed
The Speed robot is intended primarily for simple packaging applications like flower pots, thin-wall food containers and tubs, and similar parts. Like all S5-25 robots, the S5-25 Speed can be configured with horizontal strokes from 1,500 to 6,000 mm. It has a 700 mm demoulding stroke, and a 1,200 mm vertical stroke. Maximum payload, including end-of-arm tooling, is 7 kg. Standard equipment includes Sepro’s Visual control, which offers an intuitive, touchscreen interface that simplifies robot programming and control and integrates with most IMM controls.
Closing the gap between 2nd and 1st
Sepro is currently second in its field and Renaudeau confirmed “there is a gap” between first and second place, but the company is ensuring it is anticipating trends and nurturing its core competencies in business, just as it is planning for the future and looking after its people as a global business. A new board reflects the global and human nature of Sepro, with the company taking on the talents of 81 new personnel this year alone.
“We want to offer more automation. We want to offer full control everywhere with no difference between Germany, France, the US, Mexico, it must be the same level everywhere,” said Renaudeau. “We are ambitious and our new board reflects that.”
