Increasingly, robots are turning up in smaller companies -- and so far there are few complaints.
Thin clouds of smoke and steam drift through the huge dark room, as the heavy steel dies of the die-casting machines slam shut, then explode open. Mechanically, an arm reaches into a machine, grabs a piece that's been cast, lifts it out, then, turning, hange it on a rack. At The Newton-New Haven Co., a $12-million-a-year die-casting plant in North Haven, Conn., the industrial robot is already earning its keep.
"They give us a distinct competitive edge," says Newton-New Haven's president, James R. McClurken, referring to his seven Unimate 2000 robots. Once considered the exclusive property of giant automobile manufacturers like General Motors and Ford, the mechanical workers are turning up with increasing frequency in small companies. Like McClurken, the owners of these firms find that using robots makes good economic sense. In a typical die-cast operation, for instance, the introduction of a robot generally leads to a 30% increase in productivity; other industries have reported increases of up to 300%.
McClurken got hooked on the technology more than 20 years ago, when he was plant manager for one of the largest die-casting operations in the country, Pottstown, Pa.-based Doehler-Jarvis. Die casting, which is used to produce an incredible variety of metal parts for other manufacturers -- everything from components for meat slicers to billiard table equipment -- requires workers to handle metals reaching 1,250 degrees F., at high pressures on machines that may knock out hundreds of units per day. Under these conditions, heavy turnover was a constant problem at Doehler-Jarvis. "A diecasting plant is a real rough environment for a man to work in all day," says McClurken. "We were constantly training new operators. We felt dammit, there's got to be a better way."
That was in 1961, the same year that McClurken met Joseph F. Engelberger, of Danbury, Conn.-based Unimation Inc., one of the first robot manufacturers in the country. None of his competitors had yet sold a robot to a die-casting plant, and Engelberger, anxious to get a foothold in the industry, approached McClurken at Doehler-Jarvis. "We didn't buy the robot," says McClurken. "We leased it. Unimation wanted to get some installed, and it was such a good deal that I couldn't turn it down." Machine operators nicknamed the robot "Knucklehead."
Once Knucklehead was installed -- floor layouts had to be changed and new water lines put in -- and its bugs worked out, the robot performed like a, well, like a robot. The machine had a number of advantages, besides providing labor for an increasingly unpopular job. Knucklehead worked three shifts without coffee, lunch, or bathroom breaks, broke down less frequently than the diecasting machines, which dated from the early 1900s, and performed more consistently than a human worker. Altogether, it produced a better percentage of good casts and reduced machine maintenance. "There were unexpected cost savings that were very significant," says McClurken.
Doehler-Jarvis's strong UAW local didn't object to the robot, in part because both the company and Unimation were careful not to displace workers by the new equipment. "We added robots as attrition took care of the people doing that job," says McClurken. Notes Unimation's Engelberger, "Our policy is that no one can ever point to a Unimate and say, 'That machine took my job." By 1973, when McClurken left Pottstown, Unimates were tending 25 of the plant's 60 die-casting machines.
Not surprisingly, when he joined Newton-New Haven four years ago as executive vice-president, one of McClurken's first recommendations was that the privately held company go with the new technology. The 60-year-old firm had been hard hit by the 1975 recession, experiencing a nonprofit year for the first time in 22 years, and William Newton, Jr., then the firm's president, had been forced to lay off 70 of his 180 employees. Writing about the experience a few years later ("Recession: Do You Have a Contingency Plan?" INC., September 1979), Newton had admitted, "Like a lot of small companies, we're sometimes guilty of not seeing what's happening right under our noses." This time, though, Newton was determined not to make that mistake -- Newton-New Haven bought its first robot.
McClurken, who had gained considerable experience with die-casting robots by that time, oversaw a smooth transition. "With this machine," says McClurken, "once you bring it in and set it on the floor in the right place and plug it in, if you know what you want, you can get it going in a week." Other units were added about once every three months, and again, the phasing in was done within attrition levels.
Seven of the company's die-casting machines are now operated by Unimate 2000s, a 3,500-1b., general-purpose robot with a base price of $46,000. All of Newton-New Haven's units are factory-rebuilt models. McClurken would like to add more, but is holding off; his plant's layout is antiquated, and some of the older machines can't be easily adapted to the technology. He is, however, contemplating the installation of some of Unimation's smaller Puma robots in the metal-working area. These will perform secondary operations like trimming, drilling, threading, and assembling cast parts.
The Unimate 2000 is a tank-shaped unit with a rectangular base supporting a turret-like device from which a steel arm extends. At Newton-New Haven it's used to grab a so-called gate (a rough casting) from the die, bring it out, and simultaneously spray lubricant on the die faces for the next cycle. As the gate comes out, the robot draws it past a sensor, which tells the robot whether it has a complete casting or whether part of it fell off or stuck in the die. If the casting is complete, the robot trips a mechanism to close the machine. If the casting is incomplete, the Unimate shuts the machine down and calls for help. With a good casting, the robot then swings around, hangs it up, and reaches for the next. It's a virtually foolproof system, and one that has paid off for Newton-New Haven. "If we took out the Unimates," says McClurken, "we'd probably have to hire at least 12 to 15 more people."
