Company Background: “Enabling the Power of Touch”
Building upon their conductive printing history, Xymox provides innovative circuitry designs, uncompromised quality, customer service with integrity, and functional printing expertise to meet the challenging needs of the electronics future.
Challenge: Alleviate Repetitive Motions
Xymox 100% electrically tests every product before it leaves the factory. This means, every membrane switch and touch sensor are plugged in, all LEDs are lit up, and every button is pushed.
“Every part we produce needs to be 100% functionally tested, which leads to millions of buttons being pressed by our assembly technicians. The OB7 can now be used to press these buttons. This allows the assembly technicians to focus on other value-added operations and relieves potential hand fatigue,” states Jon Seboe, director of operations at Xymox Technologies.
To address this, Xymox explored robotic automation solutions. They looked into cobots, which would work safely alongside their operators without the need for caging. So, if a person bumps into it, it would stop.
Entryway into Automation: Finding the Right Fit
Xymox researched various collaborative robots before deciding on the right fit. Being a custom manufacturer, they needed a solution that was easily programmable that any of their assembly technicians could use.
Xymox saw a demo unit of OB7 at their local distributor and within minutes, they learned how to teach and use it. OB7’s interface and intuitive control tablet made teaching it a job fast and easy.
Solution: Electrical Testing with OB7
Setting up the job for OB7 was all done internally. Xymox created fixtures for each part that had grids to align the parts exactly to where OB7 would run the testing of every button. They also developed their own customized end effector, which controlled the amount of pressure to touch each product.
Locating the fixtures directly off of the robot, OB7 helped run the electrical testing process by pushing down on each button. By doing so, it helped reduce the number of buttons that an operator would have to press. The operator just needed to plug in and unplug the parts.
Teaching OB7 the job was fast and easy. Xymox figured out how to optimize the path OB7 took by reading the instruction manual. If they had any issue, they called into Productive Robotics technical support team.
“Every time we’ve reached out, we got a real person respond to us immediately, which has been fantastic,” states Seboe.
Results: Safe Solution and Increased Productivity
OB7 provided a simple and safe entryway into robotics for Xymox’ electrical testing process. It allows the assembly technician to easily use automation to help relieve the physical fatigue of the testing process.
Xymox sees the potential that robots have to help employees. By doing the repetitive and redundant tasks, cobots allow humans to focus on tasks that require more critical thinking and advanced skills.
About Productive Robotics Inc.
Established in 2010, Productive Robotics Inc. designs, manufactures and markets collaborative industrial robots and accessories used in diverse manufacturing processes. Its OB7 is the simplest, most flexible, easiest and fastest to teach collaborative robot in the market. These benefits have been achieved through design decisions, proprietary intellectual property, and a unique method of teaching rather than traditional programming.
Productive Robotics aims to set the new standard for simplifying robotic automation. It emphasizes teaching the robot rather than programming. Its collaborative robots can be flexibly used in many applications offering simplicity, capability, and affordability.
Productive Robotics was spun out from ZBE, Inc. ZBE, Inc.’s origin was in robotic camera systems used in motion pictures and television special effects. Through the years, ZBE, Inc. developed a wide technology base spanning robotics, motion control, digital imaging and printing, hybrid micro-electronics and high precision mechatronic systems.
For more information, visit www.productiverobotics.com or contact sales@productiverobotics.com.
Productive Robotics Inc.
1033 Cindy Lane
Santa Barbara, CA, USA
P: (805) 244-9300
