Linido in Pijnacker develops and produces safety appliances for use in the bath, shower and toilet by elderly and disabled people.
Linido in Pijnacker develops and produces safety appliances for use in the bath, shower and toilet by elderly and disabled people. The company is one of the world’s leading specialists in this field, and has a streamlined organisation and modern production systems. Linido has been working in partnership with Valk Welding in the welding technology area since 1991. The current welding robot has been running for about twelve years, and is virtually maintenance-free. Four years ago the company commissioned a handling robot for the tubes on a Mewag bending machine. Despite the low maintenance requirement, Ron Snijder has a clear opinion on the service of Valk Welding: “We hardly ever see Valk Welding people for maintenance, but we do need them to keep the knowledge of our personnel up to standard. We regard the broad support provided by Valk Welding in that area as an important maintenance task for a supplier.”
As Procurement and Production manager responsible for Linido’s production continuity, Ron Snijder does not have much contact with Valk Welding in the service area. Ron Snijder: “The robots themselves require little maintenance and complete their cycles without problems day in, day out. That says something about the reliability of the robot systems, which we are more than satisfied with. But that does not mean that there is nothing our supplier can do for us. Valk Welding’s wide ranging facilities and services in the training area are very important to us. This year Valk Welding gave two of our people refresher training in programming. The robots themselves do not require maintenance, but the knowledge of the people who operate and programme them does. You have to keep up with the state of technology in order to continue to make full use of the functionalities of the robot and the programme.”
Linido this year initiated an optimisation study for the welding robot. That revealed that if the necessary nowledge was available, the robot would be able to weld more products in small series. Ron Snijder: “When our assistant foreman left he took a large amount of the knowledge in this area with him, and we weren’t even entirely able to make improvements to the welding robot. Valk Welding responds to those situations with an excellent range of courses, for outdated and the very latest welding robots alike. Valk Welding has now taught two of our people all the ‘tips and tricks’ in the programming area, and we are now able to efficiently programme the improvements and new products using the teach pendant.”
