The outdoor and lifestyle footwear brand, KEEN, introduced a UNEEK shoe design some time ago. But they didn’t want to confine their innovation to the shoes, but also their processes of creating profitable footwear.
KEEN Inc., is a company founded by Martin Keen and Rory Fuerst in 2003, based in Portland, Oregon, is dedicated to the manufacture of footwear for outdoor activities and lifestyle. KEEN shoes are sold in more than 1,000 retail outlets in the United States and distributed worldwide.
Due to its rapid growth, its production required incorporating an automation solution into manufacturing.KEEN engineers collaborated with House of Design LLC (a supplier to ABB Robotics located in Nampa, ID) to develop a robotic cell to produce its new design of UNEEK footwear.
The challenge was to produce a UNEEK shoe in half the time of the traditional production process—a shoe that would offer a high level of comfort.
How Was the Process?
The cell has two ABB IRB 120 robots that interlock the interlocking laces located on the upper part of each shoe. Also,according to the KEEN shoe feature idea, these laces provide comfort by comfortably adapting to the shape of a person’s foot.
The choice of the ABB IRB 120 multipurpose robots was based on their precision, and high repeatability, the robots in the cell interact to execute the process twice as fast. They are compact, small, six-axis robots that have a payload of 3 kg and a reach of 580 mm that provide agility, precision, speed, and repeatability for a wide range of applications where a smaller footprint is required.
ABB says UNEEK is an excellent example of the prowess of today’s industrial robots. “It shows [that] they can be used for complex, near-custom jobs, as well as handling the high-volume, repetitive work they are primarily known for.”
The UNEEK robotic cell managed to produce a UNEEK shoe in half the time while maintaining the quality of the fabric. This automation solution offers excellent flexibility and speed, overcoming the challenge initially posed. It also acquired a world of opportunities in the automation of the footwear sector.
This is an example of success with the integration of industrial robots that can produce repetitive, complex, and customized high-volume jobs meeting a high-quality standard.
Whether you own a shoe manufacturing business or any other, you can boost your production process efficiency and business profitability with robot integration.
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