Eaton Global Testimonial

According to a company official, “Our sales growth is the highest it has ever been! We owe much of that to our complement of Rixan/Mitsubishi robots. In all, we have 12 Rixan/Mitsubishi robots. Four of the robots, RVE3J’s (5-axis), work in our plasma welding area, and work very well under severe conditions. They just keep on doing their job 24/7 with uncanny reliability and precision.

“In addition, we have eight Rixan/Mitsubishi RV-4A (6-axis) robots that have been running almost non-stop for 10 years. Yes, 10 years! Running 24/7...with no failures....helping us to meet our production quotas and keeping us way ahead of the pack. These Rixan/Mitsubishi robots all work in harmony on the line loading and unloading machines that grind, seat, finish and polish raw materials into engine valves.

“The Mitsubishi robots are durable, reliable and extremely accurate at +/-.03mm at 5.8m per second. The Rixan/Mitsubishi robots provide precise positioning time after time resulting in precise uniformity in parts. And that is critical when it comes to manufacturing engine valves. There is no margin for error. When you think about the fact that we produce 100,000 engine valves a week , I’d say that our Rixan/Mitsubishi robots play an integral role in maintaining output, improving productivity and maintaining consistent product quality because of their accuracy.”

When asked about how the “human” members of the plant’s team felt about their robot counterparts, a company representative said, “Our employees see the value of robots in our quest to remain the leader in the global manufacturing arena. When we bought the robots from Rixan Associates, we were provided free training which is not something most robotics companies offer. Rixan Associates was extremely helpful in the total set-up and training and continues to be helpful to this day whenever we may need parts or scheduled maintenance. The employees also found that the Mitsubishi robots, because of the Melfa programming, were easy to teach and easy to program...and they were fun. I don’t think the robots were ever viewed as a threat to jobs, but more as a way to meet our manufacturing objectives and relieve many of our employees from handling repetitive tasks. Many of our unskilled employees have actually benefited greatly from the Rixan/Mitsubishi robots because, through learning how to program, operate and maintain our robots, they have, in effect, become skilled workers. That has helped us retain good, productive workers and put them into more challenging, fulfilling roles.