3D printed robotic gripper for the food industry
In view of the long company history and the tradition-rich character of Gerhard Schubert GmbH (founded in 1966), the enthusiasm with which the company has launched itself into 3D printing may come as a surprise. The manufacturer of modular packaging machines, headquartered in Crailsheim, Germany, mainly works with clients in the food, drink and cosmetics industries, and tailors each machine to the respective client. Schubert first started employing 3D printing technology in 2014, and since additive manufacturing turned out to be the ideal solution for customised robot tools, five years later it is hard to find a Schubert machine that doesn’t feature additively manufactured parts.
Jörg Brenner has been working at Gerhard Schubert GmbH for 15 years and is now also CEO of Schubert Additive Solutions, a company spun out of Schubert’s 3D printing division. This company now provides the 3D printed robot parts for Schubert GmbH. However, in addition to working with Schubert’s own customers, it also caters to those who use production and packaging machines from other manufacturers and need new parts or solutions, and increasingly to customers from other industries. Brenner says that flexibility is the greatest advantage of additive manufacturing, as it allows them to provide the customer with a tool that 100% solves their problem.
The driving force behind the acceleration of this new technology at the company was its team of design engineers. Schubert currently employs 145 of them, 40 of which work on tooling and format parts. When 3D printing started to become part of their job, the older employees suddenly no longer wanted to retire, says Brenner - because they noticed that this technology allowed them to make their designs a reality more easily. Conventional manufacturing methods such as milling and turning are of course still employed when building the machines, but for parts with complex shapes which are adapted to a client’s product – usually parts that grip and move the product – 3D printing is perfect.
A challenge was posed by customers who weren’t yet entirely convinced by additive manufacturing and had concerns such as: “How am I supposed to x this part myself?”, “Can I have this as a milled part too?”, and “2 weeks delivery time, isn’t that quite long for a 3D printed part?” There was a need for a persuasive solution which covered the entire manufacturing cycle, from additive thinking through to the part design, printing and finally the digital storage, which ensures that the part can be repeatedly accessed and printed. The goal is to print analogously to how Spotify provides music. Like the streaming service, the digital part warehouse is also supposed to work with a single click and immediately, but for 3D printed parts - and without further preparation on the part of the customer, such as slicing, part orientation or placing of supports. Additionally, the service is intended to work across the whole company and in as many locations as possible, e.g. to serve customers through local networks that enable them to have a part printed close to home.
Marcus Schindler, Schubert Additive Solutions
This entire process and the digital warehouse it relies on will be the subject of a presentation given by Marcus Schindler, Head of Materials Management at Gerhard Schubert GmbH and CEO of Schubert Additive Solutions, on day 3 of the TCT Conference @ Formnext. As part of the industrial challenges track, he will talk about the printing of functional end-use parts to increase uptime and faster time to market.
“We believe that 3D printing is the solution for a large number of tools and parts and can replace conventional manufacturing methods in many places,” Jörg Brenner comments on the role of 3D printing, both for Schubert and the manufacturing industry in general.
Schubert Additive Solutions, meanwhile, is not limited to packaging machines – other sectors, such as medical technology companies, have also shown interest. For this machine manufacturer, 3D printing has opened up a whole world of new possibilities.
The presentation “Printing Functional End Parts for Packaging Lines to Increase Uptime and Faster Time to Market” by Marcus Schindler / Schubert Additive Solutions will take place on 21 November, 2.30pm – 3pm on Stage 1 of the TCT Conference @ Formnext.
Formnext takes place in Frankfurt on 19-22 November. Register for your showfloor ticket here and visit the TCT @ Formnext Conference website to register for your conference pass.
