For many years, Werner Bauser GmbH has been supplying its customers utmost precision in injection molded plastic parts. From its plant in Wehingen, in the Swabian Jura, the company also supplies its products to customers in other countries. The company is able to draw on 45 years of experience, a strong sense of family unity and high-tech automation from KUKA Roboter and SHL Automatisierungstechnik AG at its German plant.

When Michael Bauser, Managing Director of Werner Bauser GmbH, talks about his company, it is a story that would be the envy of many a company executive. It is the success story of a family-run company.

It begins with Werner Bauser, a watchmaker, who founded the firm in 1962, together with his wife as the first and only employee. He produced plastic cogwheels for the watch industry. As early as 1963, he received orders from the automotive industry and thus began manufacturing components for speedometers – so-called precision plastic parts.

The company enjoyed steady growth. In 1975 it employed 50 people. It now has a workforce of about 160. Werner Bauser GmbH operates with three-shift production and employs the latest automation technology.

It has to, in order to ensure that the company maintains its unrivaled product quality – a million times over. This, namely, is how many parts are produced at the plant each day.

Great diversity of parts

“We manufacture 2500 different products every day. Ninety percent are geared parts, such as toothed quadrants, toothed gears and worm drives for the automotive industry,” says Michael Bauser.

Since 1996, the core competency of the firm has been the correction of individual gears. This is because of the high quality requirements of our customers. It is a process that was developed at Werner Bauser GmbH and cannot be bought. Deviations of the individual gears are measured. Using the results of these measurements, the company incorporates the deviations into the corresponding mould. “Gear compensation on its own is simply no longer sufficient,” says Michael Bauser. “Quality requirements in the automotive industry are extremely high,” explains the engineer and managing director. The fear of product recalls is great, so close attention is paid to even the smallest of parts to ensure that it is flawless. The son of the company founder understands his customers: “It only makes sense. Today, when you buy a car, you expect at least a three-year warranty.”

80 injection molding machines and 19 KUKA robots

The production facilities at Werner Bauser GmbH house 80 injection molding machines and 19 KUKA robots. 17 of the robots have been integrated into the machines by SHL Automatisierungstechnik AG. The robots unload the finished parts from the injection molding machines and place them in the waiting “nesters” or sort them into cartons ready for dispatching. If the products to be manufactured have inserts, these inserts are supplied to the robot which then loads them into the machine. The robot then uses a camera or a sensor system to perform a quality inspection. For the purpose of carrying out additional spot checks, the active process can be selected and stopped. The KR 15 and KR 16 robots are controlled using the KUKA KR C2 controller.

The main reason for using robots was their great flexibility. Due to the wide range of different parts produced, there has to be a way of switching from one process to another quickly and smoothly. “We invested in the first robotic system in 2000,” recalls Michael Bauser. “Back then, despite receiving good quotations for conventional solutions, we opted for 6-axis robots.”

At the time, the company was faced with the option of fully automating production or transferring it abroad. “However, we are deeply rooted and remain true to our German location. We wanted to keep jobs and know-how here,” explains Michael Bauser. For the implementation of its automation project, the company chose local partners from the area. SHL Automatisierungstechnik AG is situated not far away. “This has the advantage that we can work together quickly and in close cooperation. We have had good service from SHL from the outset,” asserts the managing director. “Since the first system was operating smoothly, we saw no need to look to products from other manufacturers for the follow-up projects.” As far as the KUKA robots were concerned, the automotive industry was also a good reference. “KUKA robots cannot be that bad if the automotive industry relies on them.”