Unternehmen&Trends - Ausgabe zur HANNOVER MESSE 2019

extra effort involved with this decorative stitching is justified not only visual grounds – as Kuhn knows, it also performs an import- ant comfort function: “Top-stitching causes three-dimensional deformation of the sur- face, which contributes to improved air cir- culation and in turn prevents the formation of sweat.” With the robot sewing cell the automatic production of curved seams in lockstitch is fast, process-reliable and economical. Only the insertion and removal of the article in the template firmly mounted on the robot wrist is still manual. All further production steps are shared by the robot and sewing machine. The robot exactly follows the predetermined path of the seam in time with the sewing machine. With an accuracy of one tenth of a millimetre, the Motoman GP7 turns and tilts the article, factoring in the correction values of the stationary image processing in real time, in the course of which the tolerances of the natural material leather are compen- sated. High-quality appearance The articles that leave the plant have a high-quality appearance and are charac- terised by a degree of precision that would be impossible to achieve by manual work. “Those who are not familiar with our sewing robot will no doubt question the manufactur- ing process of these articles,” says Kuhn. In contrast, manual sewing processes are prone to error and require intensive quality checks. With the combination of sewing robot and camera-aided tolerance compensation, RoQom 6000 rises to a new quality level. The automated process results in a signifi- cant reduction in the defect rate. Rejects of the expensive items are virtually eliminated, adherence to delivery deadlines is improved and much time is saved. But reproducible quality and a high cost-ef- ficiency of the process are only one side of the medal. Users from the automotive industry are particularly enthusiastic about the new freedom they gain with regard to intricate seam contours: “There are no bounds to the creativity of the designers when it comes to seam contours. This will have an impact on interiors in future, and permit even greater individualisation,” of that Kuhn is certain. Besides the sewing of car seat covers, KMF has already received enquiries from the au- tomotive industry for door panels for side trim and three-dimensional sewing on the dashboard. Kuhn also sees a glowing future for robot-aid- ed sewing in other areas, such as the sewing of filters and technical textiles: “This process offers unlimited potential. One of the enqui- ries recently received is for robot-sewn blan- kets for new-born babies.” Industry 4.0-compatible process The use of robotics featuring state-of-the-art control technology finally creates the pre- requisite for integrating sewing processes into Industry 4.0 environments. For this pur- pose, the modular stand-alone cells can be simply incorporated into existing processes. RoQom 6000 systems are highly flexible when it comes to conversion to other prod- uct versions and plant extension. Individual cells can thus be extended step by step to complete production lines in which manual loading and removal of the article is replaced by automatic loading. “To enable us to sew items with larger dimen- sions, we can easily replace the Motoman GP7 currently being used by Yaskawa six-axis robots with an ever greater reach. And if need be, we can use our big post-bed sewing ma- chines for three-dimensional working. Under these conditions, we see considerable poten- tial for the robot-aided process as a basis for the future of sewing,” says Kuhn. ■ YASKAWA Europe GmbH www.yaskawa.eu.com Websites KMF Maschinenbau GmbH www.kmf-maschinenbau.de Unternehmen & Trends  55 A Yaskawa Motoman GP7 is the basis of the fully automatic RoQom 6000 sewing system. Automatic production of the lockstitch curved seams is fast, process-reliable and economical with the sewing robot.