In an industry facing significant labor shortages, BetterWay Products turned to a cutting-edge autonomous robotics sanding cell from GrayMatter Robotics to meet growing demands for its composite components used in the marine, recreational vehicle, and manufactured housing industries.
Scan&Sand is GrayMatter Robotics' autonomous system empowering BetterWay Products to handle the manufacturing industry’s challenges. The turnkey solution stakes its claim as the world’s first dual-armed autonomous robotic sanding cell– a result of combining GMR-AI, GrayMatter’s physics-informed AI, with the functionality of industrial robotics and sophisticated sensing capabilities. This system redefines manufacturing operations, particularly in sanding processes, by significantly increasing speed, maintaining consistency, and enhancing overall effectiveness.
One of the key advantages of Scan&Sand is its user-friendly interface, enabling operators with no prior robotics or automation experience to operate the system with ease. For BetterWay Products, the introduction of this innovative solution resulted in a 4x throughput increase, a reduction of a third of consumable usage, and reduced onboarding time from two months for sanding parts manually to one day of sanding parts with robots, effectively alleviating workforce stress and increasing overall efficiency.
“Most of industrial robots are all point-to-point or programming type and not the autonomous robots,” says Clint Decker, group vice president of Fiberglass Business Unit at Patrick Industries Inc., which is part of BetterWay Products. “That is a new technology—we're looking at the only two robots in the world that sand autonomously.”
At the heart of Scan&Sand lies GMR-AI, a physics-informed AI that empowers robots to program themselves efficiently and operate safely in high-mix, high-variability manufacturing environments. The rapid deployment of this technology seamlessly integrates with existing operations, optimizing efficiency without causing disruption.
As the first of its kind dual-armed autonomous robotic sanding cell, Scan&Sand™ is pioneering development in the world of specialty vehicles and marine manufacturing and setting new standards in surface finishing and high-mix manufacturing. BetterWay Products, known for its forward-thinking approach, is among the first to adopt this cutting-edge solution.
Watch this video to learn more about how BetterWay Products is leveraging the Scan&Sand™ robotics technology.
Article topics
Email Sign Up
Related Marine News
