This article was sponsored by Reliabotics, a Thomas Verified provider of state-of-the-art technology to solve customers’ surface preparation and intelligent robotic needs through product services and partnerships.
“Rising labor costs and lack of skilled workers keep business owners up at night,” says Steven Evers, vice president of sales and marketing at Reliabotics, a manufacturer of robotic systems.
But are robots the American way?
“We manufacture our products here in the U.S.A.,” says Ahsan Anwar, product manager. Intelligent robots perform a wide variety of tasks across industries, such as repetitive functions like packaging in factories, allowing American employees to focus on more creative and intellectually challenging tasks. Just take a look at the staff of Reliabotics: “Our technical team consists of software engineers, electrical engineers, mechanical engineers, mechatronics engineers, chemical engineers, and skilled technicians,” says Anwar.
They serve the aerospace, automotive, construction, electronics, glass, manufacturing, medical, packaging, optics, and pharmaceutical industries. Additionally, Reliabotics’ partners include Epson, FANUC, KUKA, Bechtel, the MTA*, and more.
Significantly, in an era in which we need dependable, contamination-free assemblies, Reliabotics is also “redefining clean.” The New Brunswick, New Jersey-based company offers efficient and low-cost equipment for tabletops and large-scale integration alike.
“We overcome all the challenges from a contaminated surface to better bonding, from drilling holes with mobile robotics in the tunnel walls to sewing dashboards of highly reputed automotive manufacturers, from inspection to contract manufacturing,” says Anwar.
Thomas Industry (TI): With recent reshoring trends, many companies are finding it difficult to find skilled workers in the U.S. Can robots help?
Steven Evers (SE): We see many skilled workers retiring and fewer and fewer hires able to replace them. Robots can help, but can they really do the same operations as humans with decades of experience? In many cases, the answer may be yes.
New robots capable of sensing or “seeing” their environment have come about in the last several years. With the advance of new software and sensors has come about a new era of capabilities that were unheard of just 3-5 years ago.
We learned that if you have the expertise to recognize these trends and address them with solid engineered solutions, they should keep us busy for decades.
Ahsan Anwar (AA): Two of the most important challenges the industry faces today are rising labor costs and a lack of skilled workers. That’s where we come in with our robotic platforms and fully automated solutions. Our robotic cells help our customers to increase their productivity and enhance the quality of their operations with less cost and zero risk along with repeatability.
TI: Tell me about your company — what sets you apart from the competition?
AA: Normally a client needs to spec out all the items individually — like which robot to use, which surface treatment method to use, and what tools to use. We offer a one-stop-shop experience to our customers. We do everything. From process development to tool selection, from software development to recipe selection, we often find ourselves being asked to take full responsibility of processes and execute in a timely and professional manner.
Not only do our customers get a focused and responsive team to take their challenges and find and deliver the solution, but they also get a lifetime of personalized service afterwards. It’s as simple as picking up the phone and talking to one of our engineers directly.
This gives our customers a real advantage because we’ve heard about integrators who have disappeared on their customers once they have delivered and received their payment. We don’t do that. We believe in long-term relations because we want to be the first one to come to our customer’s mind if they ever face any challenge or need a solution, even 10 years down the road.
SE: The Reliabotics Surface Technologies Group was formed to serve as a unique resource for hard to find services related to the adhesive bonding and paint pre-prep industries. Today, we’ve expanded that to include additional robot end-of-arm automation and integration related to material removal, grinding, deburring, and polishing. Speaking of deburring, we are about to introduce a new product to the market that can mimic the motions of a skilled deburring technician at a brand-new price point. We recognized that no matter how much effort goes into the selection of adhesives, primers, or paints — or even the robotics dispensing automation required to apply them — adhesion was only as good as the method of surface prep used before application.
It took a lot of hard work and millions of dollars in development, but over the last few years we have assembled the most comprehensive offering of equipment and services relating to this process deficiency. Our partnerships now address multiple process, fully automated solutions.
TI: What’s the biggest question you get from prospects, and how do you respond to them?
AA: “Can you do this?” Most of our customers come to us with complicated challenges and requirements that many companies out there don’t have solutions to. Our answer normally is not just a yes, but a successful track record of the projects we have done and the products we offer.
SE: We pride ourselves on not only knowing what to do and how to do it, but more importantly, what not to do! Whether it’s about cleaning a surface after sanding for coatings, lowering an object’s surface energy for better adhesion, precision cleaning for optical scanning, or even automated deburring or automated sewing with real-time path control, we always try to offer a fully process-controlled solution.
TI: Many think of modern technology as a detriment to the earth, but Reliabotics is actually helping companies with environmental efforts. Can you tell us a little about this?
AA: Being environment friendly and complying with all the regulations is a big challenge these days. Reliabotics offers solutions and products that are fully compliant with all relevant laws and regulations and are “green.” We believe that with advancement in technology, every solution, every product, every process that we propose and deliver should have a positive impact on the environment.
SE: Our main differentiator is the offering of a full range of proprietary surface prep technology which uses clean, green recycled CO2 as the solvent of choice. Although many manufacturers have come to rely on things like wiping with tack cloths, acetone, or alcohol, those options have their own issues. VOCs (volatile organic content) are being more closely regulated by agencies like the EPA, and manual processes can be very efficient or spotty. On the other hand, CO2 micro-particle spray blasting (or carbonic cleaning) has many advantages. It cleans thoroughly often with just one pass.
Our CO2 systems offer “three-way cleaning.” With this cleaning method, our customers are shocked to see things like oily fingerprints literally disintegrate as the blast passes over them, and particles and contaminants are simply blown into awaiting filtration systems.
TI: How do you measure success at Reliabotics?
AA: We are always innovating, which keeps us on the track of success. For instance, our recycled CO2 cleaning shows a perfect example of our innovation: we took cleaning to the next level by using an existing technology but refining it with modern technology. Both our product lines of CO2 cleaning and automated deburring demonstrate our success through innovation.
SE: No better metric can be employed than a happy and satisfied customer who checks off the boxes on a well-executed work-scope during acceptance. Our goal is customer delight! Our good reputation and track record of success allow us to offer more complete solutions to our customers through our partners, hand-picked to offer best-in-class solutions to our customers.
*Go to the 30-second mark in the video above to see Reliabotics’ work with New York City’s MTA.
