Tradition connects

07.02.2020

Already since the 1980ies, Otto Nussbaum GmbH & Co. KG has been using welding robots of Carl Cloos Schweisstechnik GmbH. On the occasion of the 75th company anniversary the manufacturer of lifting platforms, situated in Kehl, Baden-Württemberg, modernised his production comprehensively. With new powerful QIROX welding robots, the welding production is now prepared for the future.

Otto Nussbaum GmbH & Co. KG belongs to the biggest manufacturers of lifting platforms for car workshops and service companies. According to the motto "We lift cars", the company with its 350 employees produces at its site in Kehl more than 17,000 lifting platforms per year for customers all over the world. Worldwide, more than 200,000 lifting platforms in total are in operation. 

Welding production is the core 
"Our customers expect the safest lifting platform with the highest-possible benefit which arises by innovative solutions in car loading, the highest speed and the lowest space requirements in the workshop," explains the Nussbaum Managing Director Volker Felder the high quality requirement of the company. "The welds are a decisive factor for the safety of our products." The welding department belongs to the most important production areas in the company. Therefore, the availability and the reliability of welding systems are of the utmost significance for the whole production process. "The welding department is the core of our production sites," explains Felder who is in charge of the Nussbaum departments Production, Logistics and Material flow. "From the welding department, the production order is allocated to the customer, from here the single parts become components and finally a Nussbaum lifting platform."

Already since the end of the 1980ies, Nussbaum has started to use robots for automated welding in the production. The seven existing welding robots were totally replaced by new robot system in 2018. "Our oldest CLOOS robot of the ROMAT series has been reliably working every day since 1985," says Felder.

Complete revision of the production
Three years ago, the Nussbaum management decided to comprehensively modernise the different production areas in the company. The target of the revision was to increase the productivity and efficiency of the production processes to improve the competitiveness. By investing in new robot systems, Nussbaum wants to increase the productivity due to the higher welding speeds on the one hand. On the other hand, tacking shall be integrated into the robot process, the welding process shall be shortened in total, the arc time shall be increased and the set-up time shall be reduced to a minimum by means of intelligent fixtures.

The modification and the complex new installation of the welding robot systems took place during running production. The production was normally working without downtimes. In doing so, Nussbaum has completely revised the layout of the welding department. They did not only optimise and adapt the robot systems comprehensively but also the logistic and material flow processes to increase the welding production to a maximum.