Templajib: Moving Tempered Glass with Suction Cups Without Risk to the Operator

At a tempered glass plant, weight isn't the only problem: a sheet of glass that breaks while two workers are lifting it is a cut, not a muscle spasm.

Templajib temper and digitally prints glass and has automated that process using a glass handler from " Atlas Robots " featuring suction cups. This interview with Jacob was recorded in 2021.

Project Overview

Client	Templajib
Sector	Tempered glass with digital printing
Country	Spain
Cell installed	Glass Handler with Suction Cups
Startup	2021
Spokesperson	Jacob, Templajib

The Starting Point

Loading and unloading glass sheets by hand sets the pace for the entire production line and exposes the worker to two risks at once: cuts if the glass breaks, and back injuries due to the height and weight of the load.

Results

• From 10 to 11 a.m. production within the same workday 8 hours
• Complete training in 4 people at 10 minutes
• Zero Jobs eliminated: The worker was transferred to another production line
• This eliminates the risk of cuts and injuries when handling glass

The robot helps us produce more and better, with less risk to the operator: a piece of glass breaking, cutting off an arm, or injuring the operator's back. Jacob, Templajib

Ten minutes of training

The most surprising fact about this installation isn't related to production, but to people: four operators were trained to operate the cell in ten minutes. This addresses the most common objection when a small factory considers purchasing a robot—namely, who will operate it afterward.

The Full Interview

Transcript of the interview

Jacob, Templajib. Transcription slightly edited for readability.

Our specialty is digitally printed tempered glass. We do a lot of work for manufacturers of shower enclosures and for all types of glass contractors who install tempered glass doors and carry out commercial installations.

We're making bigger and bigger pieces, and the robot doesn't have any back problems. With all the heavy loads we're handling, we decided to add a robot at the exit of the edging machines.

That process used to be done by a person. There used to be one operator at the entrance to the edging machines and another at the exit, and they would manually transfer the glass from one edging machine to another. Now the robot does that work: as the glass comes out of the edging machine, it picks it up horizontally, rotates it to a vertical position, and transfers it to the next machine. The conveyor belt from the other machine picks it up and feeds it into the edging machine.

The change is that there’s a person who is no longer lifting heavy loads—because the robot does that—and the person who used to be there is now working elsewhere in the company. They knew the robot was coming to help them, because they were going to be doing something else. No one here is going to lose their job: what we’re doing is producing more.

Before, we used to produce 10 units in 8 hours; now we produce 11 in 8 hours. The robot helps us produce more and better, with less risk to the operator. This is where the risk lies: a piece of glass that breaks, falls, cuts someone’s arm, or causes a back injury… Those problems can no longer happen, because the robot handles the parts.

The robot is already programmed to perform the movement it needs to do, and since it only does that one movement, any of the operators can press the button, and it resets and starts working. It's easy. They gave the four of us who were going to operate the robot a quick training session, and that was it—it took 10 minutes. There's nothing more to it.