Through “Made Smarter” matched government funding, we have helped Empire Cartridges to upscale their manufacturing output of shotgun cartridge shells by investing in an Industry 4.0 solution that will enable the business to produce and pack in excess of 1million cartridges each year.

The addition of the Cobot to the enhanced manufacturing system which Empire Cartridges have developed themselves, means the task of packing the shotgun cartridge shells into boxes, which was previously done by hand, is now done automatically.

Empire Cartridges had previously invested in a bespoke cartridge manufacturing machine, built a conveyor and now the Techman TM5 Cobot completes the production line by packaging the end product – lifting five cartridge shells at a time then putting them into a box.

Above: Andrew Bond of Empire Cartridges with the Techman TM5 Cobot

Simon Plimbley from Morson Projects, who has been working closely with Empire Cartridges to integrate the Cobot into their manufacturing process, shared:

“Having been appointed as one of HMK Robotics‘ Tier 1 suppliers for deploying the Techman TM5, it has been great to see our first Cobot in action, especially under the current circumstances.

“The support we have received from HMK, the UK distribution partner of Techman Cobots has been second-to-none and we look forward to continue building our relationship with them as an innovation partner for future expansions at Empire Cartridges as well as in specific markets that are looking to embrace Industry 4.0 or digitalisation.

“In addition to this, the level of engineering ability that Andrew Bond at Empire Cartridges has shown has been beyond impressive, he has designed all the conveyor system and 3D printed all the components to manipulate the cartridge positioning. After some on-site training with one of our Cobot Engineers, Ana Luketic, he has now successfully finished the project.

“Finally, I would like to thank Andrew and his father, George Bond, for the opportunity and the Made Smarter team for their valued support in helping Empire Cartridges get the necessary funding to embrace digital technology.”

Andrew Bond at Empire Cartridges, added:

“The support from Morson Projects was excellent and the interface on the Techman Cobot meant we could get it up and running within a couple of hours of having it delivered, it’s been a complete revolution for us and increased productivity by easily 50%.

“I would recommend anyone who has even just an inkling that they might have an automatable operation to get in touch with Morson Projects and to look into a Techman Cobot, it really is the future of modern manufacturing in the UK.”

To find out more about Morson Projects’ Cobot capability, please call Simon Plimbley on 0161 707 1516 or send him an email here.