Improving the Workplace for Manufacturing of Selected Elements

The article describes issues concerning the organization of production and the ergonomics of workplaces. It then describes the organization of the indicated workstation, proposes its improvement, indicates the differences between manual and robotic workplace, their advantages and disadvantages and the problems associated with the improvement of the workstation. The problem that is described in the article concerns the cutting of the material, in this case - PVC poly(vinyl chloride), which up to now has been done by hand. The problems experienced with manual cutting were related to the long cutting time, the monotonous nature of the work, as well as the quality of the cut and the repeatability of the dimensions, as several pieces are to be assembled at the same time, one on top of the other. The problems identified are also very relevant because of the industry of application of these elements. The cut parts are to be used in the chemical industry. As an improvement, an innovative solution was proposed in which this cutting of the components was carried out by means of a laser, mounted on a robotic arm. The laser cuts made on the workstation were carried out on equipment available to the Department of Engineering Processes Automation and Integrated Manufacturing Systems, on Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. The article also describes the construction of such a workstation and identifies the main problems associated with the robotization of such a workstation.