How a Carpenter Used a Cobot to Automate Glue Work With Regular Dispensing Tools

Holzkunst Holocher is a creative woodworking shop in Allgäu, Germany. They're known for making solid wood furniture, innovative kitchens, and climbing toys for kids.

But one of their production steps involved filling up to 1,000 holes per day with glue by hand.

It was monotonous, exhausting, and often inaccurate.

“Too little glue and the parts won’t hold. Too much glue, and we’re wasting valuable time sanding,” explained Elias Holocher, owner and managing director.

Such  repetitive, boring tasks are major bottlenecks for small businesses, especially if they are prone to errors due to operator fatigue. 

Once Elias was introduced to collaborative robotics… He was thrilled to give them a shot. After a successful installation of the Franka Robotics cobot, Holzkunst woodworking shop has leaped into the future.

Filling Holes with Glue by Hand Is a Terrible Idea

Holzkunst Holocher’s climbing arches for kids each have 54 precisely drilled holes.

Every hole needs a perfect amount of glue. Every. Single. Time.

If the staff member uses insufficient glue, that’s a potential safety and quality issue. If they apply too much glue, the workpiece requires sanding downstream, wasting time and resources. 

Doing this manually up to 1,000 times daily is:

• Extremely tiring

• Mind-numbingly repetitive

• Error-prone, creating quality issues

• Wasting valuable worker time

How Holzkunst Holocher Easily Automated Their Glue Process (in 4 Weeks)

Elias first feared they'd need an expensive custom glue dispenser.

But after meeting TQ’s robotics experts, he realized the Franka cobot could use their standard glue gun, no fancy engineering needed. This was a major relief and something many businesses similar to Holocher worry about. 

Cobots can quite often be set up to use your standardized tools, not expensive, specialized tooling. While the end effector may need to be modified to accept the tool (depending on the circumstances), oftentimes, you won’t need to modify the tools themselves. 

The Franka cobot setup was ready in just four weeks, and the Holzkunst staff quickly adapted to it.

You Don’t Have to Be a Programmer

The Franka cobot learns tasks easily.

Workers just guide the cobot arm once to demonstrate the job. Then, intuitive apps handle the rest.

"What immediately impressed us was the uncomplicated teaching, i.e. training the cobot for the individual tasks. We are not programmers, but we can still quickly use the robot for other tasks thanks to TQ's clever, self-explanatory apps," Holocher said.

Even when they needed the cobot to do work other than dispensing glue to holes, it made a significant difference without any special programming. For example, they were able to deploy the Franka cobot to grind 500 steering wheels for climbing arches for Christmas holiday orders.

Employees Worried They'd Lose Their Jobs (They Didn't)

No one lost their job, the job only became better.

At first, employees were skeptical.

“They’d say, ‘I can do it faster by hand,’” recalls Elias. “But they quickly realized the cobot just handles the boring tasks.”

Now, staff focus on stuff that moves the needle, not the glue:

• Designing new furniture and developing portfolio

• Precision woodworking

• Quality assurance

“We need our employees for the real thinking tasks, fine work, quality assurance and further development of our portfolio. No robot will do that for us,” said Elias.

The Cost is Ridiculously Low (∼ $20 per Day)

Elias loves the cobot’s economics.

“If we were to make our climbing frames purely by hand, we would have to charge 800 to 1,000 euros for them. With the cobot, we can manufacture much more effectively and cost-effectively in perfect quality and offer our toys for a fraction of this price,” said Holocher.

With a service life of four to five years, the cobot costs just 17 euros per day, pays for itself quickly, and delivers consistent quality.

What Holzkunst Holocher Gained From Just One Cobot:

• Eliminated tedious manual glue tasks

• Improved glue application accuracy

• Freed up workers for higher-value jobs

• Reduced production costs significantly

• Achieved fast ROI (under 2 years)

• Boosted employee morale and product quality

All of this without learning complex software, programming language, or introducing major safety protocols and equipment you’d typically need with a traditional robot.

Learn more about Holzkunst Holocher success and Franka Robotics' cobots below:

• TQ: Franka cobot helps carpenter with gluing

• Collaborative Robots | LIFTED

• Franka Robotics - Homepage

Enjoy your week!

The Cobot Spotlight Team