Traditionally, VETTER has been maintaining close connections to science such as several research partnerships with the University Siegen, e.g. the project aSTAR (Imparting competencies in a VR/AR-based environment for job engineering) or the project DigiMath4Edu (Common design of education in mathematics classes: Digitalisation as a chance).
Last year, we even started a technological partnership with SDFS (Smarte Demonstrationsfabrik Siegen GmbH). SDFS is the reference factory of the University Siegen for digital transformation in the German region South Westphalia. In cooperation with the University Siegen and partners from the regional industry, SDFS conducts research on the production of the future. As a contribution to this project, we provided a VETTER ErgoLine® gantry crane. The smoothly running two-rail gantry crane is used for the ergonomic transport of weld metal around a robotic welding cell. The crane optimises production processes, improves material flow, and increases efficiency. In the further course of the project, the crane system will be equipped with sensors to record and reproduce travels and load cycles. Afterwards, this data will be evaluated and thanks to the interaction with a welding robot there will be further optimisation potential regarding efficiency and digitalisation of our production processes.
For a medium-sized company such as VETTER, close connections to local researchers present a promising aspect to address the challenges of digital transformation or to optimise manufacturing processes in an evaluated way.