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Jeff Tuttle, president of Tru-Form Steel and Wire Inc. of Hartford City, Ind., says automation keeps his company competitive. Tru-Form fabricates returnable metal racks that hold automotive parts such as windshields and powertrains, and also fabricates other equipment parts, such as heavy equipment buckets.
"Foreign competition, particularly with the Chinese, and the growing scarcity and high cost of skilled manual welders, are Tru-Form's two primary reasons for implementing robotic automation," says Monty Tuttle, vice president of the company and Jeff Tuttle's brother.
Tru-Form employs 100 people, and operates 2 eight-hour shifts for five, sometimes six, days a week. It currently has 13 Motoman robots in 12 workcells that operate in its three Indiana plants. Nine of the robots perform welding, while the remaining four are used for material handling and research and development operations.
"On average, the robotic welders replaced two human welders per cell," says Monty Tuttle. In some of the company's operations, the addition of a robot did not replace a person, but the use of the robot resulted in a more consistent product, he adds.
The newest robotic cell
The company, which began using robots in 1992, installed its newest robot cell in August 2006. The latest cell includes two Motoman six-axis HP50-20 robots and an NX100 DR2C controller, along with power sources from Miller Electric Mfg. Co. (www.millerwelds.com), pneumatic wire cutters and automatic torch cleaners.
Tru-Form designed and built all...