| Fanuc Robotics at Westec 2009 |
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| Westec 2009 |
| Written by Derek Goodwin |
 Ellison Technologies showed off a Fanuc Robot (R2000iB) I have always though of robotics as the tool of the Auto manufacturers and large scale operations. That view changed when I visited the Swerve Studios in Berkeley California.  Swerve Designs and manufactures their own furniture line combining Art, Architecture and Technology with materials such Aluminum, Corian, Bamboo and Felt  Michael and Steven Goldin have created a wonderful company where they can combine their passion for design and technology, and manufacture furniture in the San Francisco Bay Area, one of the most beautiful and expensive locations for Real Estate in the country. Swerve uses a proprietary system of interlocking components as the structure for their impressive line of office furniture. The secret is that they have designed their product line to be made from one size of rectangular extruded aluminum (in different lengths) this enables them to produce all of their aluminum components on a six axis Mori Seiki Multi Tasking Machining Center (NT4200DCG)  As you can imagine, the machine is impressive, but here is the kicker, they use a Fanuc robot to load the machine. This means that they don’t build inventory, they take an order for a specific piece of furniture and build only the components they need. Pushing the limits of current Robotics technology, they have pallets stacked with any material that may be required and the Robot reads a barcode on the material and loads the correct piece of material for the current part. This is a lights out operation and one of the best examples I have seen of small companies utilizing lean technology.  Swerve also uses a Heian NC162 five axis router for machining their table tops and a Haas VF4 for additional support.   That’s it, four CNC machines in a spotless working environment, with a small team on the floor, several programmers and designers and a small office staff. This could be the future of manufacturing in the United States.    |
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