Side by Side – The New Collaboration Between Humans and Robots in Control Cabinet Manufacturing

The future of control cabinet manufacturing, which is currently associated with time-consuming manual assembly, will no longer be solely in the hands of humans but also those of robots. This is not the case with conventional industrial robots for mass production, but rather with “cobots” (collaborative robots). After a successfully completed risk assessment, these special robots can work safely next to humans without robotic protective equipment. This is called human-robot collaboration (MRC).

In the workshop-style production of control cabinet manufacturing, a high proportion of manual assembly is still present, especially for time-consuming terminal strip assembly. In addition, the variety of different control cabinets built leads to high production costs. These two factors can be improved by using robots/cobots. In what detail, you will learn below.

Cobots are not a substitute for human beings; rather, they help expand a person’s capabilities and free up resources for other tasks. As robots perform repetitive or physically demanding tasks, human creativity can be leveraged for other, more challenging tasks. In addition, the robots mitigate the skills shortage because they are always available and assume specific tasks after just one programming.

The common goal of collaboration between humans and robots in control cabinet manufacturing? A new level of efficiency and productivity! The partial automation of previously manual assembly processes by robots leads to increased productivity, quality and ergonomics – no need to fundamentally adapt the processes.

• Easy integration: Thanks to user-friendly interfaces and intuitive programming functions, cobots can be easily integrated into existing manual assembly systems and workflows. Operators do not need any special technical knowledge or training.

• Ensuring quality and productivity: Cobots handle tasks with constant skill, precision and speed. The high speed leads to shorter production and throughput times.

• Flexibility and adaptivity: Cobots adapt to many assembly tasks – without costly retrofitting or reprogramming.

• Streamline processes & increase efficiency: Cobots are especially useful for repetitive and physically demanding activities (e.g., terminal block assembly). This saves effort, frees up staff for more complex tasks and increases overall productivity. Additionally, the employee can mount or prepare additional rail-mount terminal blocks on another workpiece as the robot works.

• Cost-efficiency: Integrating cobots into control cabinet manufacturing processes can also lead to significant cost savings through efficient operation and low downtimes.

• Safety: Cobots can integrate into existing manual assembly systems without complicated protective devices. Since they can also detect the presence of humans, a secure collaboration between robot and human is possible. Creating a safe work environment minimizes the risk of work accidents.

Human-robot collaborations offer great added value in control cabinet manufacturing despite high initial costs and integration effort – especially given the current skills shortage and time-consuming manual assembly processes.