R E C O B O T S C O B O T CLEANING FLANGES Workshops play an essential role in maintenance. Here, parts are cleaned and repaired. Some of these jobs are repetitive, monotonous and sometimes dangerous. An example of this is grinding flange connections. A collaborative robot, or Cobot for short, can potentially take over these kinds of activities from humans. SMART TOOLING O B J E C T I V E One of the first partners within the Smart Tooling project was Sirris. This Belgian non-profti organisation supports companies in introducing technological innovations. Peter Paulissen was closely involved on behalf of Sirris in the implementation of Cobots in workshops. COBOT FOR FLANGE CLEANING TAKING OVER REPETITIVE WORK CONSISTENT QUALITY LESS PHYSICAL STRAIN EASY (RE)PROGRAMMING FLEXIBLY DEPLOYABLE INVESTIGATE OTHER STAKES 35 "In the initial phase, KicMPi and Sirris organised an event in Antwerp where we gave information about Cobots and digital work instructions," says Peter. "It turned out that many entrepreneurs had the image of an impressive industrial robot in mind. One that is big and unstoppable. But Cobots are quite small and handy. They are made to stand safely next to a human, have a safety stop and adjustable safety limits. You can push the robot arm away in no time. ENGIE AND ITIS Peter Paulissen: "During the event we were able to explain a lot. A number of companies wanted to know more and I have
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