Ultrafab’s Story: Laser Cutter Tending With a Cobot Achieves 400% Output Boost

Ultrafab is based in Farmington, New York, with over 50 years of business in the fenestration industry (weatherstripping for all types of windows and doors).

However, with manual labor, their production was severely limited compared to what they were able to achieve with automation.

The manual process of finishing the products was quite intensive, making it difficult to hire and retain staff.

Ultrafab knew they had to introduce robotics. But the question was, which robot technology would actually tick the boxes?

The Standard Bots RO1 cobot eliminated the labor issues and introduced another shift. Their output went from 1500 parts a day to 6000!

The Main Issues Ultrafab Was Facing

Repetitively handling and cutting weather-sealing manually can be very daunting. Naturally, Ultrafab struggled with labor shortage and retention. 

All manufacturers face staffing challenges related to repetitive and uninspiring tasks. Even if they hire someone to do such jobs, the employee is unlikely to stay for a long time. 

Robots will provide better results than humans for anything that’s relatively simple and repetitive. So, ignoring automation where it’s most required also presents an opportunity cost.

“One of the main bottlenecks we were facing was the labor issue, given a specific customer order,” said Charlie Sanders, process technician at Ultrafab. 

Why The RO1 Cobot - How Simplicity Solved Most Automation Issues

“We were really looking to bring in robotics to our company because we have a lot of short runs, specifically on our OEM side, that we would have to tool up and fixture up to make a specific product. And then, we would need to tear it down to make something completely different,” said Alan Radcliffe, Product Manager at Ultrafab.

Since Ultrafab has a lot of different products, they needed a flexible automation system.

And that’s where cobots shine…

However, to really get the most out of their investment, Ultrafab compared the available solutions and chose the RO1 from Standard Bots.

Why RO1? 

Because it matched their production and staff needs. That’s the best way to think about cobots. They are an extension of your processes and employees. So, figuring out which cobot and its software to use is more than half the battle.

“We looked at a few other cobot manufacturers, and what they had didn’t really seem to fit exactly what needed,” said Todd. “Our customer’s specifications are very well defined. Overall length of one of these parts has to be within 1 mm, other features withing 0.5 mm, and our process capabilities are excellent, standard deviation of measurements is less than a 0.1 mm, [with a cobot]” noted Charlie.

The cobot eliminated their entire finishing part operation by working with the laser cutter and handling the cut parts automatically.

“We choose Standard Bots because of the easy interface. We were able to get up and running very quickly and switch over programs and develop new programs very quickly, and it was very affordable to enter into this robotics market,” said Alan.

The 400% Results

Ultrafab’s introduction of a cobot changed everything.

No more menial labor. No more bottlenecks.

Ultrafab went from 1500 to 6000 parts per day. 

And… they achieved lights-out manufacturing while improving their production tolerances.

Ultrafab’s staff quickly adapted to the cobot software and its everyday use despite fears that it might take a while to learn. In fact, the RO1 exceeded their expectations for quality and ease of use.

Now, they are considering what other boring, repetitive tasks are more suited for a cobot.

“There are plans to expand. And I think that it’d be very beneficial. There’s a lot of different places that it could take up that monotonous kind of jobs that you have a hard time getting people for and keeping them” - Todd Clemons, R&D Engineer at Ultrafab.

Learn more about Standard Bots and Ultrafab’s success story here: 

• Standard Bots Website

Enjoy your week!

The Cobot Spotlight Team