New Innovations: A Look Into Güdel and the World of FlowMotion

Welcome to Advanced Automation, a podcast by Calvary Robotics, where you'll find industry leaders and experts sharing their thoughts on the world of automation. Hello, everyone, and thanks for listening. I'm Josh Gravel, your host for this installment of advanced automation, ask the experts. Today, we have with us Brian Engelking. Brian is a senior account manager for Güdel, covering the northeast part of the United States from Ohio to Maine. He has been with Goodall for more than twelve years and has a total of eighteen years experience in the general industry of robotics and automation. Brian brings Meditronic's knowledge from a large array of industries and processes where systems integrators, line builders, and end users are using line linear automation to solve their application needs. Thanks for being with us today, Brian. Good morning. How are you? Thanks for having me. Doing well. Doing well. So you wanted to tell us I read your bio, your background a little bit, but if you wanna dive into a little more about yourself for the listeners, that would be that would be great. Sure. I, born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. So I am a Buckeye. Been working for, for Güdel for the last twelve years and and, like you said, in the industry for for almost twenty years now. I have a background in mechanical engineering and a a very strong knowledge of mechatronics componentry. So when we talk about, you know, high end automation, linear and rotary, you know, we're talking about ball screws and nuts and belts and pulleys and linear motors, racks and pinions, all kinds of gearboxes, and, you know, making sure people can move from point a to point b, effectively and with the best automation, there is out there. So pretty pretty deep backgrounds in in mechatronics, and everything eventually hooks up to a servo motor, which is where, automation usually begins from mechanical to electrical. So your background is perfect for Güdel. Yeah. You know, what draw me what what drew me to the company was, you know, they make all their own componentry. So if you look at, you know, Güdel as a whole, we build these big massive linear and rotary automation platforms for for systems integrators mainly. And, the the unique thing about Güdel is that we're we're, we make all the main bearing and drive components, that go into those systems. So, we really are, you know, streamlined in that we're not using, other manufacturers for our for the main components in our units. So we're able to kinda control our own destiny and manage our own supply chain. So that kinda what what initially drew me to the company and and just being, you know, of European design, the the quality of of it, you know, drew me in as well. Absolutely. So can you dive a little more into Güdel as a whole? I know you touched pretty quickly right there, but Güdel's, you know, maybe some of their history and as a company. Yeah. Sure. So, it's a unique story. It's a family owned company. Alfred Güdel founded the company in nineteen fifty four in Switzerland. Switzerland's a very unique country. It's it's completely landlocked in the middle of of, Western Europe. It's about the size of Ohio. It has roughly the same population, so roughly nine million people. Ohio has about eleven million, so it kinda has the same look and feel as as the great Midwestern state of Ohio. Can you tell I'm a Buckeye? You know, they, they started off just making, gears and pinions back in in the fifties, and it was a little machine shop. And, eventually, they they, you know, got bigger and bigger, and their customers kept coming to us saying, hey. We're we're using your components and mounting them on steel platforms. You know? Can you do this for us? And at the time, it was just gear racks and pinions. They then developed into, heavy duty guideway racks and cam follower bearings. Then we started making our own gearboxes. So we make our own, planetary and worm gearboxes. And all of those components, need to go on a machine surface in order for that technology to be used properly. So we started making, beams and frames and machining them. And then, eventually, we started, expanding that platform into what we call, linear modules or what we call robotics. And so these are mechanically complete units. They generally start around two meters in length, and we go up to, you you know, several hundred meters if you want. You know, the unique thing about a rack and pinion is that it's it has infinite length. You know, you just hook a motor up to a gearbox, which is connected to a pinion, and you have, you know, an infinite amount of travel. You know, usually, the limiting factor with a linear motion platform is is, the HyFlex cables. You know, traditionally, you're you're stopped at a certain length with that. But, yeah, that that has developed, and we have a full range of of single and multi access linear platforms. And we're generally in the in the heavier payload industry, So we're talking about, you know, twenty kilograms up to up to several tons, and and from a stroke standpoint, like I said, we we generally start at two to three meters and go up from there. You know, we're not one of these, lighter payload, linear automation platforms where you're only picking up five pounds and moving at twelve inches. You know, generally speaking, we're in the heavier heavier payload industry. Would that be some of what separates Güdel from their competition, would you say? Yeah. I mean, there there's always a gray area with with with, with other manufacturers out there. Usually, if if, we go into an application and they start talking about, you know, five pounds and eighteen inches and, you know, their repeatability is is a half an inch, you know, we we we tend to not do well in that space. I I generally sit in front of a of a customer and say, hey. You know, if we're sitting at a kitchen table, you know, kitchen table's two to three meters long. We got, you know, fifty pounds sitting on there, and we're trying to move it at at half a meter or one meter a second. That's generally where we're we're really good at. And then we we get really excited when customers start talking about heavy payload. And, you know, I've been with the company a dozen years. And and even in the last decade, I've seen a huge transition from heavy payload to to super heavy payload. And now we're talking about, you know, longer platforms, you know, area gantries that span thirteen meters, fourteen meters, fifteen meters. You know, we're talking about hanging six axis industrial robots upside down on an area gantry. You know, most people think of of an industrial robot as kinda fixed mounted to a platform and working in its own envelope, you know, with its six degrees of freedom. And most most of the industry knows that, you know, putting that on a on a linear rail, you know, industry term is an RTU, a robotic transport unit. You know, people call them robot sliders, robot tracks, linear rails. Most people know that, you know, you could put a six axis robot on a linear platform, and now you're basically expanding the work envelope of that robot. You know, instead of having, say, multiple robots fixed on a at different stations, you put that single robot on a linear axis, and now you've basically expanded your your work envelope of that robot. So you're basically getting better ROI out of that platform. And, you know, what what's unique with with Güdel is that now we take that single linear axis, and we're adding multiple axes to that. So now you can move that robot in x, in y, in z, upside down, sideways, you know, hanging off a diving board. That that's where the the applications for Güdel get get really interesting and exciting for us. Speaking of interesting and exciting, what innovations are on the horizon for Google? So we're we're seeing a lot with, I would say in the last half a dozen years, companies wanting to move robots vertically. You know, moving a robot left to right, now they want to move them up and down because they're welding a large platform or painting a large part or they're trying to cover a large area with cleaning or prepping, for for a machine surface. So getting that robot not only laterally but vertically, up over the workpiece is is is allowing us to kinda create more platforms. So we actually have an overhead rail pro product where, you know, you're move you have a a robot on a linear axis, but it's off the floor. So it's sitting on on legs. That robot is, say, machine tending, but it's up in the air and it's over the machining centers. We actually took that product and rotated it ninety degrees and created a new product line called the TracMotion Vertical. And so now you're able to take, a pre engineered product, mount it upright, and move a robot up and down like like an elevator. Like, it's basically a fancy elevator. So that, you know, that that forced us to create a new product line, so now we have standard sizes. They're all sized for for the standard industrial robots that are that we see in our industry. And then we're also seeing a a lot more of the the smaller robots, you know, trying to move on linear axes, covering larger work envelopes, you know, like the cobots and the smaller six axis, robots that are out there. You know, generally, you'll see those on on shorter stroke units, but now companies are wanting to deploy the larger collaborative robots on linear axes. So that's getting interesting for us because now you're talking about not only having the robot be collaborative, but the auxiliary axes having to be collaborative too too and safe, you know, in its application. So now we're talking about, you know, light curtains and sensors to be able to have auxiliary access to be able to sense the safety aspect of it. Absolutely. What so safety being, I'm sure, one of them. What other challenges then is Güdel facing with some of these innovations? So as automation grows, we're seeing payload increase. We're seeing strokes increase. We're seeing larger robots being deployed. We're now seeing larger robots needing to be on multiple single or multi axis. So if you can imagine, you know, the world's largest robot is the FANUC M 2000. And, you know, we just saw that at the automate show and it was picking up a really cool red Corvette. Guess it was. Yeah. You know, we designed a six a seventh axis for that robot. So you can move that robot on the floor on a on a seventh axis on a linear transport unit. We deployed the first of those, you know, half a dozen years ago, and now we're seeing the need for that increase because more and more people are needing that heavy payload, that long reach for those large robots, but they also wanna move them linearly in in the manufacturing plant. Most recently, I've seen a unique application of having to move that on an x y platform on the floor. So now you're talking about, you know, having this huge robot on several axes. We're talking about, you know, super heavy construction, making sure the foundation is adequate. You know, things get get bigger and beefier, and you're also wanting to move faster. So now you have, you know, weight times, you know, mass times acceleration. So making sure you can handle the dynamics. So being able to have the right motor gearbox combination to be able to move that that enormous mass. So that's been challenging for us to be able to come up with the right platform. You know, some applications are requiring two servo motors to drive a single axis. So now you have two servos connected to a dual input gearbox connected to a planetary just to drive a single a single linear motion platform. So that that's been a little challenging for us too, but but it's been fun. Yeah. I was gonna say, but you still love it, don't you? Yeah. You know, our applications team and and our account managers get excited when there's, unique applications getting thrown at us. I think that's one of our one of Güdel's strong suites is being able to sit down with customers. You know, all of our applications engineers are are engineers themselves. You know, and they you know, the standard product is interesting, but, you know, people you know, I wouldn't say get get bored with that stuff, but, you know, when something challenging comes across their desk, they their their eyes kinda light up. They they get on the the video call or the conference call of the customer. We're sitting down with the customer, and we're we're talking through that application. You could tell they really start to they really start to jog their mind and use their their background in in in linear automation to kinda solve an application. So that's fun. And and what we try to tell people is, you know, put your put your robot or your payload in space and tell us, you know, how heavy it is, how fast you need to move it, how far you need to go, and we'll figure out all the action behind that to be able to move it from point a to point b. You know, could be a single axis. It could be six, seven axes. It depends on on the application. So we try to tell people if it's a an industrial robot application, put that robot in space to where you're able to maximize the efficiency of that six axis robot in space, you know, with its motion, and we'll figure out the x, y, z behind it to be able to get it to get it there and move it from point a to b to c and so on. Wonderful. I'll put you on the spot here a second. How many, I don't know, systems that you've seen installed? What how many robots in a single system do you think? What was the top? I'll have to think about the number of robots, but probably the one of the most unique ones is we did, a a floor rail system that had, twenty four independent carriages on it. Wow. You know, it it's a it's a proprietary application, but that one was was really unique. Cable management was interesting. But Sure. You know, on a on a single on a single safe access, we had, had had over twenty independently driven carriages on it. As far as robots, we, you know, we see dual carriage and and triple carriage applications quite often. Yeah. I would say I would say three to four to five is is is pretty pretty high from a a a six axis robot application. Yeah. You know, at some point, those robots are are in their own work envelope paneling their application or their process. So at some point, there's a lot of redundancy to where those robots don't need to travel, you know, the full safe, it it's a fifty meter long application. You know? They only need to work in in in a certain amount of space. So pretty common is dual and triple robotic, you know, single axis carriages. Anything else you care to touch on before we close things out for? Yeah. I would say, you know, as far as other emerging industries, you know, we're seeing a lot more, cleaning, prepping, coding applications. So if you can imagine, you know, really harsh environments, you know, I love I always go back to to Mike Rowe and Dirty Jobs. You know, he he does a really good job, talking about, you know, difficult applications and and the need for for people to be safe and automation to be able to help those industries accomplish those really difficult and hazardous tasks. So we're seeing a lot more robots and and gantries and technology being deployed in those in those really nasty environments. And because we kinda have a unique bearing system, we use a cam follower. We tend to hold up really well as opposed to a linear guideway platform. So that's kinda what helps Güdel stand apart. But, also, you know, the way we design ourselves, we we we like to see those applications. So, you know, painting, blasting, you know, difficulty with blasting media, coating, dispensing, you know, that nasty sticky paints and adhesives and and and sandpaper grit that's blasting all around. Those have been really unique for us to see, and and we're I think we'll continue to see those industries kinda pop up. Yeah. I would say that that that's us in a nutshell. That's great. I really appreciate you taking the time to, talk to us today. What's a great way for, you know, our listeners to either connect with you or just Güdel in general? Yeah. We're we're on LinkedIn. We have a pretty good presence, so so follow me. My name's on there. I'm I'm, we have Güdel US. We also have our Güdel global headquarters in Switzerland. You know, I I would say that's probably the best place to reach out to me. I'm always on there looking for for new videos and and takeaways from from LinkedIn. So that's probably the best way to reach me, you know, besides my, my email and my my mobile number in our main office in Ann Arbor, Michigan that that covers the, United States and Canada. Great. Yeah. I'd highly recommend checking out Güdel's websites. Really nice, easy to navigate, lots of great information on there. So check that out. Just Güdel dot com? Yes, sir. Yep. Okay. Well, once again, thank you so much. Appreciate your time. Appreciate it. Good interview. Thank you, sir. Make sure to subscribe to Advanced Automation wherever you get your podcasts and head over to calvary robotics dot com to listen to other episodes, watch our series Calvary TV, and get lots of other great content for Calvary Robotics. Have a great day.