Unternehmen&Trends - Ausgabe zur HANNOVER MESSE 2019

KMF Maschinenbau GmbH in Schwäbisch- Gmünd has been specialising in the manu- facture of automatic sewing machines since 1973. While the customer base at its start-up consisted mainly of clothing manufacturers, today most orders come from the automo- tive sector – and these are customers who demand top quality. Dietmar Kuhn, plant manager at KMF, spec- ifies the requirements: “When it comes to leather seat covers for premium vehicles, the parallel decorative stitching must be accurate to a tolerance of half a denier – and with a 0.4 mm thick thread that means 0.2 mm. That’s why these high-quality curved seams in par- allel lines are virtually impossible to produce by hand.” Besides that, well-trained seam- stresses who can cope with the stress of in- tense concentration in piece- and shiftwork are hard to find. In order to comply with customer require- ments for high quality appearance from the automotive industry there is a constant need for new, innovative solutions. Subject to the dictates of quality and cost-effectiveness, the experts at KMF see gigantic potential in robotics for providing process-reliable solu- tions. They have already acquired robotics experience in the automatic application of spray adhesives to upholstery and are using this know-how for the development of ro- bot-aided sewing technology. Need for fast and precise six-axis robots The criteria of dynamism, range and preci- sion played a decisive role in the selection of a suitable robot. Because the required tolerance on the finished part was 0.2 mm and leather as a natural material is subject to variations, the company set about locating a six-axis robot with a repeatability that was better by about the power of ten. In addition, it was extremely important to KMF that the robot manufacturer should have a global network, as 75% of its automatic sewing ma- chines are for export. “Following an intensive market analysis we found the ideal combination in Yaskawa as a system partner and the Motoman GP7. With a repeatability of 0.03 mm the robot is extreme- Sewing robot provides new freedom in the design of seat covers The future of sewing By Ralf Högel, Freelancer A renowned manufacturer of automatic sewing machines has introduced a six-axis robot for intricate sewing applications in automotive interiors. The new technology enables particularly high-quality designs to be realised with parallel curved seams. 54  Unternehmen & Trends Images: © YASKAWA Dietmar Kuhn, Plant Manager at KMF, envisages enormous potential for the sewing robot. ly accurate, its reach of almost one metre also fits the bill, and dynamically the six-axis robot can keep pace with our sewing machines,” stresses Kuhn. This robot forms the basis for the fully automatic RoQom 6000 sewing system, which also comprises a sewing ma- chine, image processing system, safety SPS and corresponding templates in which the parts are secured. Challenging tasks for market introduction At the launch of the RoQom 6000 the au- tomatic sewing cell was called upon to demonstrate its performance in a demand- ing application. The task set was to produce parallel curved seams on leather seat covers for vehicles in the premium segment. The The sewing robot is extremely user-friendly in operation.