
EC66 cobot at work.
Elite Robots has come to the aid of a North China-based mechanical manufacturing company which is active in the automotive industry. The Chinese company was seeking a solution that would solve its safety and accuracy concerns.
At its facility, the company produces wear-resisting inlaid rings, salt cores, and stainless-steel parts for its global customers including Mercedes, BMW, Volvo, Toyota, Honda, and other automotive companies. Once manufactured parts are finalised, they are then exported all around the world.
Safety concerns and growing inaccuracies plague mechanical manufacturer
The Chinese company identified that its workshop environment, where salt cores are manually refined, was not optimal. Both the noise caused by the large variety of production equipment and the extensive amount of dust created by the refinement process were recognised as issues. There were also increasing concerns about the medium to long-term consequences for workers’ health.
In addition to the safety concerns, the manual processes in place at the facility were both demanding in terms of concentration and precision. Coupled with the manual aspect, the company was concerned about increasing inaccuracies once worker fatigue set in.
Taking all of these concerns into account, the Chinese company decided that investing in automation technologies could “improve quality and optimise processes, as well as protect the health of workers by keeping them away from suboptimal areas.”
Key features of the EC66 cobot:
- Payload of 6kg.
- Accuracy of ±0.03mm.
- IP54 rating.
- Operates in the temperature range of -10~50°C.
- Weighs 17.5kg.
- Radius of 914mm.
The EC66 cobot comes to the rescue

EC66 cobot at the Chinese mechanical manufacturing facility.
After careful consideration, the company opted for a fully automated system, including a robot arm. Elite Robots evaluated all the available options and decided to recommend the EC66 collaborative robot (cobot) model which comes with an integrated 3D camera.
The solution comes with a gripper that can fit two interchangeable gripper jaws. This allows the cobot to pick up both the raw salt cores and the refined products, the user will simply need to change the jaw installed on the cobot. Additionally, with the 3D vision system, the cobot will be able to use its arms to locate and grasp the raw salt cores, despite stacking irregularities.
Offering repeated position accuracy of ±0.03 mm, the EC66 will correctly place the salt cores both in the CNC machine (for refining) and on a finished product pile (post-refinement). The robotic arm also offers IP54 protection, allowing it to be fully operational in harsh environments. To improve its protection further, an additional special protective suite was installed to reduce the impact of the dust generated during the refinement process.
“Due to the cost-effectiveness of the entire solution, the zero-maintenance required and the very low operating costs (with the power consumption of 250 watts on average, the cobot consumes less electricity than a heat lamp) the customer achieved a full payback on its investment in only seven months after installation.”