TRANSFORMING QUARTZ PRODUCTION: ABB’S ROBOTIC REVOLUTION IN VIETNAM

At the America Quartz Technology (AQT) plant located in Hue, Vietnam, the implementation of ABB robots has revolutionized quartz production, achieving an impressive 80% reduction in cycle time. This transformation has not only improved efficiency and product quality but has also increased safety and working conditions for employees.

Previous Challenges
Before automation, the production of quartz components at AQT was done manually. Workers were exposed to high-temperature heating processes, increasing the risk of accidents and production errors. This situation not only affected product quality but also resulted in high staff turnover due to the dangerous and repetitive nature of the work.

Robotic Solution
To address these challenges, AQT decided to implement a robotic solution from ABB, leveraging their previous experience with ABB robots in their United States plants. The solution consisted of a robotic production cell that includes an ABB IRB4600 industrial robot, an IRB2600 industrial robot, and a molding machine.

The IRB4600 robot is responsible for picking up the quartz piece and positioning it for the heat treatment process. Then, the IRB2600 robot uniformly heats the quartz piece. Subsequently, a cylinder mechanism sucks the heated quartz plate towards the mold and shapes it. After 30 seconds, the vacuum valve closes, and the IRB4600 robot removes the product and repeats the cycle.

Impressive Results
Since the introduction of the robots, the plant’s efficiency and performance have significantly improved. The number of defective products due to production errors has been reduced by a factor of five. In addition, the production time has been reduced from 25 minutes to just five minutes, with a current average production of 100 pieces per day, representing a fourfold increase compared to the previous manual production process.

Tran Phuoc Thanh Vu, manager of the AQT factory, highlighted the benefits of the solution: “Using the solution provided by ABB, our products are now consistently completed with the highest quality, with less manual intervention and a reduction in errors. Conditions have also improved for workers, as all the dangerous and repetitive work is now performed by robots.”

Promising Future
The positive experience with ABB robots has led AQT to plan the investment in several additional robotic stations for the plant in the coming year. This continuous modernization ensures that the plant maintains a lean production process and continuously improves its productivity.

The AQT quartz factory in Vietnam has achieved a significant milestone in industrial automation within the quartz manufacturing sector with the implementation of ABB robots, which have proven to be an effective option for improving quality, safety, and efficiency.