Case Study: Polar Hardware boosts production with Formic Technologies machine tending

Polar Manufacturing and Formic Machine Tending Solution

Polar Hardware, a 105-year-old Chicago-area manufacturer of industrial door and truck body hardware, needed a way to keep up with orders without investing in costly automation upfront. Before Formic Technologies, the company had no automation in its facility and relied on a 50-year-old press machine and manual labor to bend heavy metal parts.

Formic Technologies implemented a machine-tending solution built around a UR5e robot, dual jaw grippers, an HMI, mobility stand wheels, an input magazine, and automated oiling, while also handling project management, equipment, installation, and ongoing uptime support. The system now produces about 800 parts per 10-hour shift, or roughly 80 parts per hour, and lets Polar’s leadership monitor production remotely through Formic’s dashboard.

Polar Hardware

Jose Figueroa

Plant Manager