Mr. Rom­bach, why did you switch from the proven SRU-plus swiv­el mod­ule to the SRM unit?

In our flex­i­ble cells, we han­dle very small as well as rel­a­tive­ly large parts. One sin­gle automa­tion solu­tion needs to be able to cov­er this per­for­mance spec­trum on one machine. We had designed the SRU-plus our­selves, but it was sim­ply too small and could not pro­vide the nec­es­sary pow­er. But with the lim­it­ed instal­la­tion space, we could not install a larg­er unit.

Then came the solu­tion that saved the day when SCHUNK rec­om­mend­ed the new­ly dimen­sioned SRM to us. This swiv­el mod­ule is now avail­able in all step sizes, mean­ing we have been able to access the size that suits us best.

Despite the rel­a­tive­ly small instal­la­tion space, the SRM pro­vides high­er max­i­mum moments and bet­ter damp­ing, and runs with absolute sta­bil­i­ty.

“Despite the relatively small installation space, the SRM provides higher maximum moments and runs with absolute stability.”

Mar­co Rom­bach

Do you also use the SRM swiv­el unit in oth­er appli­ca­tions?

The SRM has come into use through­out our com­pa­ny ever since then, because it enables a down­ward leap in size with greater pow­er den­si­ty at the same time. Since our core con­cept is to build com­pact cells that are also easy to inte­grate into the cus­tomer’s space, instal­la­tion space is always an issue for us. We always need full per­for­mance in the small­est pos­si­ble space. That’s why the SRM has come at just the right time for us.

It is notice­able that sev­er­al SCHUNK mod­ules are used in each sys­tem, both grip­pers in all ver­sions and swiv­el units. Are there no alter­na­tives for you?

Per­haps there are alter­na­tives. But what we need is absolute reli­a­bil­i­ty, and we find that with SCHUNK com­po­nents. Our cus­tomers depend on reli­a­bil­i­ty. Their sys­tems run 24/7 all year round. Max­i­mum through­put, no down­time and high flex­i­bil­i­ty are the
spec­i­fi­ca­tions.

Reli­a­bil­i­ty is at the top of the list, and we don’t allow our­selves any exper­i­ments here, because the cus­tomer needs the best pos­si­ble deliv­ery per­for­mance. And we can only achieve this with top qual­i­ty, which is why we rely on SCHUNK.

Source of inno­va­tion in the Black For­est

Black For­est Smart Automa­tion – BFSA – is an automa­tion spe­cial­ist based in Löffin­gen, Ger­many. The core of the solu­tions is the “smart cell”, which can be equipped in a cus­tomer-spe­cif­ic and mod­u­lar way depend­ing on the appli­ca­tion. In com­pact Euro pal­let size, it can be inte­grat­ed into exist­ing process­es and expand­ed as required.

This results in flex­i­ble and mod­u­lar cells for pal­letiz­ing, stack­ing, clean­ing, label­ing, debur­ring or han­dling in dif­fer­ent indus­tries.

The SRM rotary mod­ule: ver­sa­til­i­ty in mod­ules.

The swiv­el unit SRM 25 offers BFSA max­i­mum flex­i­bil­i­ty.

BFSA has inte­grat­ed the SRM 25 into a cus­tomized automa­tion cell and sup­ple­ment­ed it with a vari­ety of SCHUNK grip­pers. In this cell, pre-turned parts are fed to a knurl­ing machine. The SRM swiv­el unit then per­forms a cru­cial func­tion in the cell: when the knurled com­po­nent is removed from the machine, it is point­ing down­ward; for place­ment on the con­vey­or belt, the swiv­el unit rotates it upwards by 180 degrees.

The SRM 25 swiv­el unit in use at BFSA:

After gal­va­niza­tion, fin­ished turned parts are picked up by a PGN-plus‑P par­al­lel grip­per on an SRM 16 swiv­el mod­ule, lift­ed out with a lin­ear slide, guid­ed past a sen­sor for pres­ence con­trol and rotat­ed by 180°.

Com­plete han­dling sta­tion with SCHUNK mod­ules: SRM 25 swiv­el unit with par­al­lel grip­per trans­fers the cylin­dri­cal bush­ing to an angle grip­per, from where it is tak­en over by a PZN-plus cen­tric grip­per.

The SRM 25 swiv­el unit with a PZN-plus 50 cen­tric grip­per places a fin­ished sleeve in a sup­ply rail.

The SRM 25 turns the com­po­nent and then sets it down on the dis­charge con­vey­or.

Due to the tight instal­la­tion space at this pick-and-place sta­tion, the focus of BFSA for the cell design was on per­for­mance and com­pact­ness. Since SCHUNK has been offer­ing the SRM pneu­mat­ic swiv­el mod­ule in all sizes as of this year, BFSA can use it instead of the SRU-plus mod­ule it orig­i­nal­ly used.

The greater torque of the SRM mod­ule and the high ener­gy absorp­tion of the shock absorbers mean that the com­po­nents are set down pre­cise­ly and gen­tly. “We get high­er per­for­mance with­in the same instal­la­tion space, and we can eas­i­ly han­dle swivel­ing the eccen­tric load beyond the twelve o’clock point,” con­firms Rudolf Mar­tin, Design and Man­u­fac­tur­ing Man­ag­er at BFSA.

BFSA also relies on SRM mod­ules in a label­ing cell. Here, turned parts are guid­ed by SCHUNK SRM 16 swiv­el mod­ules in per­fect inter­ac­tion with the PGN-plus‑P par­al­lel grip­pers and the PZN-plus three-jaw grip­per pre­cise­ly through the label­ing process and on to the next machin­ing step.