Automation Done Right
Oakridge Fabrication in Minnesota is your typical American Job Shop. Recently they deployed three ProCobot systems to leverage over 1,500 hours this year.
Oakridge Fabrication in Minnesota is a job shop that is known for embracing the latest technology and processes available to guarantee quality parts and cost-effective pricing. The shop embraced automation but did their homework before choosing ProCobots. After conversations with people who literally had robots sitting in the corner due to their inflexibility and complexity, the Oakridge Fabrication owners knew they needed an automation system that was easy to set up, easy to program, and easy for their machinists to learn.
Oakridge Fabrication chose ProCobots. Within a day, the collaborative robots for CNC machine tending were installed and running. Within two days, the machinists at Oakridge were trained and changing programs themselves. ProCobots automation is designed for high-mix manufacturing and lets you optimize your machinists’ time by assigning the redundant loading and unloading of parts to the cobots. Oakridge Fabrication now has three ProCobots automation systems running day and night. Currently, Oakridge estimates they have anywhere between 1,500 and 2,100 hours of uninterrupted run time on their systems already this year!
The VMX42SRTi and ProFeeder run both 3 and 5 axis parts. Setup runs the smaller jobs during the day and longer jobs overnight and on weekends.
This system runs lights-out production utilizing part stacking to increase capacity. This system even preforms a blow off cycle before part is transferred to the sub spindle.
This system runs both production and small jobs. Part programs can change throughout the day with change over time averaging 5 minutes.
