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Application model of some typical Jaeger Poway automotive products. |
Founded in 1999, Jaeger Poway is a joint venture of Erich Jaeger GmbH + Co. KG Elektrotechnische Spezialfabrik, a leading producer of electronic connectors for trucks and trailers in Germany, and the Hong Kong based company Poway Industry Ltd. The company’s production base is located in Shenzhen, China. Currently, Jaeger Poway mainly supplies connectors to widely known domestic and foreign manufacturers of heavy trucks as well as semi-trailer vehicles and towing vehicles. The product range includes 7-pin 24V electric connectors, 15-pin 24V electric connectors, ABS connectors, and more. Among Jaeger Poway’s most prominent customers are: VOLVO, MAN, SCANIA, WABCO, SINOTRUK, DONGFENG, FAW, SHAANXI AUTOMOBILE, and many others. Today, the company has become a high-quality supply partner of the heavy truck industry.
Decision in favor of WITTMANN
Following the rapid development of the Chinese economy in recent years, the wage level of domestic production workers rose quickly, and accordingly, labor costs also increased very quickly. Likewise, Jaeger Poway faces the pressure of rapidly growing production costs. In order to maintain the advantage of a good price-performance ratio in the global truck connectors industry, Jaeger Poway decided to partially replace manual production with an automation system. For this reason, they carefully studied the automation equipment of a few renowned companies that are active in this market.
In the beginning, Jaeger Poway intended to adopt some six-axis servo robots for their automation needs in Shenzhen. But after the Jaeger Poway management had comprehensively considered – amongst other factors – such very important factors like the different footprints of different automation systems, of course the operator friendliness, and also the specific achievable cycle time, Jaeger Poway eventually selected the W843 servo robot model from the WITTMANN Group as their automation equipment.
An efficient solution
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A spiral cable, one of Jaeger Poway’s representative products. |
Before this was installed, the cycle time summed up to 108 seconds. The operation of one injection molding machine running at Jaeger Poway required two workers every shift. One of the workers had to put a wire into a gripper that fixed the insert, check the finished products, cut off sprues, and take the gripper with the finished part out of the machine. The other worker put the insert filled part gripper into the injection molding machine and took out the finished products from the gripper. Jaeger Poway ran two shifts a day. As a consequence, two injection molding machines used to need eight workers a day. As the weight of the gripper – including the inserted wire – was about 15 kg, handling the grippers a longer time could become an exhausting activity for the operators. Most of the production employees only reluctantly accepted this job.
WITTMANN installed a W843 robot for the automation of two 100-ton injection molding machines. This automation system has been elaborately optimized by the automation professionals of WITTMANN. As a result, the production cycle has become significantly shorter than it was before: now it is only 84 seconds. Now, two injection molding machines need only four workers a day. The robots take over the heavy physical labor, which was undertaken manually before, and they guarantee smooth production runs around-the-clock.
Normally, a robot at Jaeger Poway is operating at two injection molding machines, and both are producing parts. While one of the machines is prepared for the production of other parts, or while it is maintained, the robot can be set very easily to service exclusively the still running machine by applying only a few simple switchovers. Therefore, the overall production capacity can be raised significantly.
All in all, WITTMANN automation raises productivity, reduces the scrap rate, and lowers energy consumption. Its high-quality advanced equipment and the considerate and comprehensive technical support are the fundamental reasons why customers, including Jaeger Poway, turn to the WITTMANN Group.
