Ubbink - time savings with multi-coupling
Doesburg-based Ubbink (founded in 1896) has a mission "to improve the energy efficiency and indoor climate of buildings". One has the product range within the categories of flue gas exhaust, ventilation, airtight and watertight construction, in addition Ubbink offers roof windows and fixing materials for solar energy systems.
More information: www.ubbink.com
Increased efficiency
Because of the economic crisis, Ubbink saw order sizes and stock levels at customers decreasing. On the other hand order frequencies were increasing. Therefore there was more need to convert plastic injection moulds quick and error-free.
Because of the low investment costs per injection moulding machine and the mould itself, plus the fact that the entire conversion could be done in-house, Ubbink decided to automate with Stäubli's RMI multi-coupling model. With this efficiency improvement, the risk of connection errors was immediately reduced to zero.
2 hours of time saved per mould change
About 50 moulds have been fitted with the Stäubli RMI209.20 multi-couplers in the first phase and people are very positive about the results. More than 2 hours are now saved per mould change: one has gone from over 3 hours on average below 1 hour on average. This does not include the cost of the consequences of incorrectly connected cooling hoses.
Time saved thanks to multi-couplers
The Stäubli importer Q Plus indicates that such a time saving is more the rule than the exception. Time analysis of mould change reveals that if there is little left to improve in the organisation. Precisely connecting and disconnecting the hydraulic and cooling water hoses gives the best time savings for the least investment. Automated mould clamping is comparatively many times more expensive and less profitable because of the high investment costs and relatively low time savings. Precisely the use of Stäubli's multi-couplings should be a first step.