Case Study: Hofmann Glastechnik achieves stable production and on-time delivery with Universal Robots cobots

Pick & Place Of Highly Sensitive Glass Tubes With Flexible Cobots

Hofmann Glastechnik GmbH, a German manufacturer of glass apparatus for the medical and cosmetics industry, needed to free skilled workers from repetitive machine-tending tasks while improving consistency and delivery reliability. Working with Universal Robots, the company introduced collaborative robots, including UR10e, UR5, and UR3e models, to load and unload PLC-controlled glass lathes and handle sensitive glass tubes.

Universal Robots’ cobots were then expanded across multiple applications, including machine tending and glass forming, such as guiding a burner and holding a forming tool. The result was more stable production, higher product quality, and better on-time delivery, with machine utilization improvements of 25% and payback in less than 12 months. Hofmann now uses eight Universal Robots cobots to support both small batches and high-volume production.

Hofmann Glastechnik

Bjørn Uthe

Department Manager Machine Park