Systematic cooperation
Specialists and service: Rexroth system integrators are the perfect partners for complete, customized solutions.
Fritz Automation GmbH banks on Rexroth components for its customers — and in its own products, too, like the BR 600 rotary arm robot.
System integrators act as the liaison between supplier and customer. The advantages: Clients need not have their own specialists in a specific field. They also have direct access to a technology manager. The integrator’s know-how augments the supplier’s direct sales channels by installing the drive and control components in the end user’s machinery and equipment.
One of these Rexroth system integrators, active around the world, is Fritz Automation GmbH in the Black Forest town of Forbach. “We see ourselves as a service provider,” is the description offered by CEO Horst Fritz. “We build complete solutions for our customers, exactly in accordance with their individual requirements,” he explains. Fritz and his twenty employees specialize in control software for manufacturing lines. A second interest is the design of fast, high-performance drives.
The company also markets its own products, once again for deployment in manufacturing facilities. Among these is a joining system featuring force and path monitoring. It was developed by Fritz Automation and equipped with IndraDrive components made by Rexroth. “Having so many types of drives available was decisive in our decision to concentrate on Rexroth components,” Fritz mentions.
To be found in the product line, in addition to conventional motors, are also direct drives that can quickly be integrated via the Sercos II/III field bus interfaces. The CEO sees a further advantage in integrated safety technology — “Safety on Board” — which is built into all Rexroth drives. “That lets our customers employ the products in all types of manufacturing,” he points out.
A step ahead through knowledge
The newest project by this German firm is the BR 600. This rotary arm robot, equipped with Rexroth controls and drive technology, is part of the Scara product line developed by Fritz Automation. “The BR 600 is particularly good at ’teamwork’. Its open interfaces let it communicate with higher-level control systems, with the entire periphery and with additional actors,” Fritz explains. The heart of the system is the IndraMotion MLC control, which supports a number of Ethernet and field bus interfaces. This robot is used above all in mounting, palletizing and population.
Whenever it’s a matter of their own products, the specialists in Forbach enjoy a privilege as system integrator: They can make use of the results worked out by the Rexroth development departments. “That gives us a clear information lead.” Horst Fritz is sure of that. And he’s equally convinced that both sides bene- fit. “We specialize in these components to establish ourselves as a qualified and reliable partner to our supplier.” The firm’s know-how in regard to drive and control and the associated mechanical technologies is expanded by way of regular schooling at Rexroth.
From a single source
The opportunities for in-service training are also utilized by dft Maschinenbau GmbH in the Austrian town of Kremsmünster. The company was named an official Rexroth system integrator in the autumn of 2007. Decisive for the executives in Kremsmünster was product diversity, extending across many fields of technology. “From hydraulics to pneumatic systems, from drive technology to controls, Rexroth as a ‘one-stop supplier’ covers all the fields found in automation technology,” explains Karl Mock, technology manager at dft.
Thus dft can employ harmonized mechanical and electronic units, made by Rexroth, in its equipment. dft manufactures primarily for makers of pumps and — among its other activities — installs the components needed in safety-critical assemblies for the automotive industry, in medical technology products and in injection systems. Short response times Like their colleagues at Fritz, the engineers at dft in Austria are always working on new products — and have developed an assembly system that uses Rexroth components exclusively. Implementing the “lean principle”, the assembly and testing system has been installed at the Robert Bosch AG factory in Hallein, Austria. Mock is quite aware that, “It was the compact dimensioning of the control components that it possible to implement ‘lean engineering’ at all”.
dft uses servo drives, linear guides, pneumatic equipment and conveyor technology by Rexroth in all kinds of specially engineered equipment. Direct access to the Bosch Rexroth organization also shortens response times and ensures quick repairs. “In return, we give our supplier feedback about new demands being expressed by the market. That is important for further product development,” Mock emphasizes. Thus both sides profit — from a systematic, cooperative arrangement.
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