2009-09-28 - It’s 1984, the Olympics are in LA, the Soviets don’t attend; the first Apple Mac goes on sale in the US; Sony makes the first 3 ½ inch floppy disc; the first Indiana Jones movie does battle with Ghostbusters at the cinemas, and Victa Lawncare in Sydney, Australia installs an ABB IRB60 robot to palletise mowers for domestic sale and export markets.
This palletising robot worked tirelessly for the next 24 years, (not sure how many of the first “Macs” are still going though) palletising several hundred thousand mowers that end up either ‘turning grass into lawn’ in Australian backyards, or taming gardens scattered over 30 countries across the globe.
The continuous operation for 24 years, places the IRB60 robot at Victa’s Sydney factory in the record books as one of the longest serving ABB robots in the world.
Victa, being Australia’s favourite mower, is used to outstanding achievements and was honoured at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games with an entire routine dedicated to the Victa lawnmower during the opening ceremony.
Similarly, the ABB robot has also performed memorably. It has successfully carried out, with exacting precision, the same repetitive task for 24 years and has done so in such a reliable and productive way, that it has required only minimal change during its entire lifecycle. Regular maintenance and support from ABB’s field service and Victa’s factory staff were contributing factors to its success.
Unfortunately during 2008, the IRB60 palletising veteran needed a spare part which had become difficult to obtain. This prompted ABB’s field service engineer and Victa’s engineers to start looking at alternatives for their manufacturing facility.
It was decided that similar to the famous Victa mower, an innovative solution was needed. It had to be highly productive, with rock-solid reliability and all within a competitive budget. Additionally, the installation needed to be completed within a very short shutdown timeframe.
“The final solution we proposed included re-utilisation of a year 2000 model IRB 6600 robot that was listed for sale online at ABB’s Used Robot Zone,” said Greg Sale, ABB’s robotics service business development manager. “The robot was one of hundreds of used robots listed in our global inventory and had very low operating hours due to spending most if its life as a test and training robot.“
“Because of the success of the system installed in 1984, an important part of the project was to ensure reliable equipment was re-used wherever possible, so with the IRB 6600 robot we were able to utilise many of the dependable pieces of the palletising system already installed on Victa’s site,” said Greg.
Eugene Lobo, Victa engineer, added: “ABB were also conscious of our desire to keep costs to a minimum, and with this in mind they conducted a full on-site inspection to assess what could be salvaged. A complete inventory was developed detailing the equipment to be kept and those items that needed updating. These new items ensure the reliability that we had become accustomed to. Once this was finalised, the production rates were then nailed down.”
The project started in August 2008 and was completed and fully installed within weeks and involved several experienced ABB service personnel working on-site for a period of seven days.
“We are very happy with the end result and would recommend investigating the cost and other benefits of re-utilising robotics equipment to others,” said Eugene. “We have a highly productive palletising system and have kept many features, such as the operator interface that were familiar to our process operators. We also utilised the existing gripper, conveyors and some of the fencing.”
ABB’s Remote Service
Victa Lawncare has incorporated an ABB response service agreement for additional security against unplanned downtime. This includes installing a remote service box and system infrastructure into the robot control systems. With a remote service box in the controller, the robot itself automatically alerts a central database by using wireless GPRS technology and the internet. It then triggers an SMS to ABB’s on-call service engineer, who can immediately access a detailed data and error log and quickly identify the exact fault and respond appropriately.
ABB’s Remote Service also helps to predict and prevent any future disruption to production caused by unintended equipment downtime. Using the Remote Service solution, ABB can remotely monitor and collect data on the "wear and tear" and productivity of robotic cells; which can then be shared with Victa. This is used to prevent production stoppages.
About Vitca Lawncare
Victa is an iconic Australian brand with a history spanning more than 55 years, from humble beginnings in a Concord NSW backyard, the business has expanded to become a global exporter of Lawncare products. Today, Victa is a subsidiary of Briggs & Stratton Australasia, a world leader in small engine manufacture and major supplier of engines to Victa, while the vast majority of their mower products continue to be made in Australia at their Moorebank NSW head office.