Case Study: Melecs EWS achieves 25% higher productivity with Universal Robots UR5

UR5 Packs Two Million Circuit Boards Per Year and Increases Productivity by 25 Percent

Melecs EWS, an electronics manufacturing service provider, needed a faster and more cost-effective way to automate the repetitive packaging of printed circuit boards in its high-volume production environment. To support this challenge, the company worked with Universal Robots and used a UR5 cobot for a pilot application in its automation strategy.

Universal Robots implemented a custom cobot solution with a special gripper that combined laser scanners, flow grippers, and a vacuum gripper so the UR5 could scan, pick, and package multiple PCBs at once. The system enabled Melecs EWS to pack around two million circuit boards per year, increase productivity by 25%, run stably in three-shift operation, and achieve an estimated payback period of 18 months.

Melecs EWS

Titanilla Komenda

Robotics Engineer, Fraunhofer Austria Research