Yellow goods sector- KOMATSU

Description: The first pilot is the extension boom component, which is part of an Excavator produced by Komatsu. It belongs to the yellow goods sector. Yellow goods sector is heavy machinery used in construction, earth-moving, mining, and agriculture, typically identified by their bright yellow color. This sector includes equipment like bulldozers, excavators, loaders, and dump trucks. KUK specifically manufactures mid sized excavators and HRD (High Reach Demolition) equipment.

One of the primary challenges for the production of this component is to achieve a highly reconfigurable production process that allows efficiently switching to other references. The large size of the part and the high degree of fixture configurability, which allows for different references to be machined in the same jig, contributes to a time-consuming and labour-intensive process for setting up, probing, and aligning the part. Since consecutive references in the production line usually have varying dimensions and geometrical features, multiple reconfiguration operations must be carried out from reference to reference.

Furthermore, machining operations are restricted in productivity mainly due to the local flexibility of the used cutting tools, which are especially slender to reach difficult to access cutting surfaces in the component.

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Lead partner: Komatsu

Other partners involved: Ideko, Dr-Matzat, Soraluce, Ibermatica, Netcompany-Intrasoft, Sintef, University of Patras, TU Darmstdat, Moduleworks, Smarttech, 2.-0 LCA Consultants