REPORTAGE - RZ OLDA INNOVATION AB
The first step towards automated production The small town of Landvetter is situated 15km east of Gothenburg, Sweden. Here RZ OLDA Innovation AB produces high-precision metal components. In late 2022, the company ventured on its first step toward automatic production, as Jan-Erik Svensson, CEO of RZ Olda Innovation AB, recounts. EROWA: Mr Svensson, what does RZ OLDA Innovation do? Jan-Erik Svensson: We provide our customers with top-quality production solutions. Today, RZ OLDA Innovation consists of two parts, with one of them producing door fittings and the other being engaged in contract production, which accounts
for the majority of the turnover. At present, contract production consists of 8 CNC milling machines (of which 3 are 5-axis) and 3 CNC lathes. Our production concentrates on milling and turning. This can be parts for the automotive industry, but also for the tobacco or packaging industries. What all components have in common is that they‘ve got to be precise and satisfy the highest quality standards.“ What was the decisive factor that prompted you to make a move in the direction of automation now? In autumn 2021, we almost had a „crisis meeting“ since our production plant was hardly able to cope with incoming orders. We were thinking about how we could increase our capacity, primarily in our milling department. It soon became clear to us that we wanted 5-axis machines with a certain form of automation. After some research, our attention was drawn to pallet changers that could be configured according to our require-
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REPORTAGE - RZ OLDA INNOVATION AB
What does this mean specifically? For us, this is a challenging process: we first want and must develop the knowledge and the technology of the new automated machine. Owing to our high degree of parts mix, we have to process many one-off parts. On top of this, we also have a lot of new orders, which we first have to program. This takes time and generates a great deal of initial work. Therefore the machines are still often standing idle. But thanks to automation, our employees will be able to concentrate much more on their „actual“ work in the future - namely quick and precise 5-axis machining. This sounds like a great deal of change? Yes, it does, but all change starts with a first step. We dared to take that step and invest in it. What precisely did you invest in? As a first step, in new premises for the extension and development of our company. And in the course of this process also in two identical Mazak CV 500 5-axis milling machines with an
ments with a high mix of various parts in average batch sizes of 1-50 pcs, we must have a very flexible production process. When we came in contact with EROWA at a fair in Värnamo, we were immediately impressed by the simple and compact solution provided by the EROWA Robot Compact 80. What precisely convinced you? The speed of the whole thing, the short resetting times allowing for more machining time. But also the wealth of productivity in a very small space. The ERC 80 is easy to operate and has been integrated into our production without a hitch. It was precisely what we needed at that point in time: a reliable, quick and simple automation solution that required very little space. Does this mean that previously, RZ OLDA didn‘t work with either pallets or automation? Yes, precisely, it was a big step for us. We first had to adapt our working processes to workpiece palletization and the automatic loading of the machines. But now, a year later, we‘re fully operational and the machines are running every day without any major problems. However, we must still learn how we can fully utilize our machines with the EROWA robots.
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REPORTAGE - RZ OLDA INNOVATION AB
handle just under 80% of all parts directly. The objective was always to grow. And this will only work with automation. The conviction is there, so are your expectations - have they been satisfied so far? Absolutely. We want more machining time, a more flexible production per machine, and all this with the highest degree of process reliability. These expectations have been more than satisfied - however, taking these steps is a challenge and a constant learning process for us. At the moment, everything is new: new premises, new personnel, a new CAD/CAM system, new automation, new machines and a new process control system.
EROWA Robot Compact 80 each. The configuration we chose consists of ten 320 x 320 mm UPC pallets and 20 ø 148 mm ITS pallets. In addition, we also use 148 P blank holders, which fit in well with our production. The UPC pallets enable us to
Everything new - so everything better? Definitely. We learn something new every day. We also notice that we can continually increase machining time and are also developing a certain status within the RZ Group, which we belong to. Complicated and high-precision parts are sent to us
Anders Carlsson, Sales Manager EROWA, Jan-Erik Svensson, CEO RZ Olda Innovation AB and Lars Clarhav, Production technician RZ Olda Innovation AB
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REPORTAGE - RZ OLDA INNOVATION AB
RZ OLDA Innovation AB • Established in1985 • Integrated into the RZ Group in 2015 (16 companies in the south of Sweden) • Parts volume between 1 and 100 parts for milling, average batch size of 500 for turning applications • Part sizes of 10-20 mm up to 300 x 300 mm • 20 employees
- mainly details that are smaller than 300x300mm and in volumes from 500 up to 1000 pcs to make it more profitable with the automation. We are pursuing or aim to grow step by step and optimize our processes on a daily basis. Do you also get support from EROWA in this respect? Absolutely. We‘re highly satisfied with the support we get, as well as with the automation and the tooling system. Thanks to the user-friendly interface of the JMS 4.0 process control system, a brief training period soon enabled us to control the machine and the robot comprehensively and integratively. We are able to prioritize our orders in a quick and uncomplicated way whenever necessary. In this way, we get the maximum out of the machine within the time available to us. And of course this puts us in a positive mood for further cooperation with EROWA in the future. Thank you very much for the interview.
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