Samson Agro

Since 1943, Samson Agro has developed and manufactured innovative and environmentally correct quality solutions for livestock farmers and agricultural contractors. The company, headquartered in the Danish town Viborg, has approx. 250 employees. In addition, the Samson Group has two manufacturing plants in France and Poland with around 200 employees.

Samson Agro exports to the whole world – primarily to Europe, where the company right now sees a heavy demand for its innovative agricultural machines. Recent years have seen a more stringent environmental legislation in Europe. This has made many farmers turn towards Denmark and Samson Agro, who is among the world-leading manufacturers of environmentally correct slurry tankers, booms, injectors and muck spreaders.

- Our environmentally correct machines allow customers to comply with the majority of environmental legislation throughout Europe and the rest of the world. This is precisely why our solutions are so much in demand at present and why they create so much activity at our manufacturing plants – in particular in Denmark. We constantly employ new staff and do our best to optimise our production, says Henrik Lund, Chief Operating Officer in Samson Agro.

- Our partnership with Migatronic goes back a long way, and we only use Migatronic welding equipment here. Therefore, it was natural for us to co-operate with Migatronic and Migatronic Automation in finding a new robot solution for our production. This has resulted in a custom-designed solution, which fully lives up to our requirements for a high-tech, efficient and easy-to-use robot, he continues.

A High Degree of Freedom

For optimisation of both flexibility and welding quality, Samson Agro wanted a flexible robot, capable of depositing perfect welds in all imaginable positions. To this end, Migatronic and its subsidiary Migatronic Automation chose to develop a version of the popular CoWelder, which can be placed in the ceiling or on the wall. This has given the collaborative welding robot a quite new dimension.

- A top-hinged or wall-mounted robot gives you a high degree of freedom and allows you to weld more and bigger workpieces in a given area. So even if the CoWelder is relatively small and weighs only 33.5 kilos, it has a large working radius. The CoWelder solution is also connected to a Migatronic Sigma Select 400 power source. It is a powerful and intelligent welding machine, which guarantees high-quality welds. This welding solution is a very good match for the assignments that we have here at Samson Agro, Henrik Lund explains.

User-friendliness of the highest standard

In addition to efficiency, Samson Agro made demands on the user-friendliness of the solution. According to Henrik Lund, it is essential that staff who are not trained robot operators can operate the welding robot. Because of the CoWelder’s intuitive and user-friendly interface, Migatronic and Migatronic Automation found that it was the right solution for Samson Agro.

- Investing in the Migatronic CoWelder was a no-brainer for us. It is very easy to use and far easier than we have seen before. We do not necessarily have to engage skilled robot operators, which by the way can be difficult to recruit. It does not require a lot of prior knowledge about welding robots to operate the CoWelder, and we can train our present staff in operating it in an hour or two, says Henrik Lund and continues:

- Since the robot is so easy to operate, we intend to train several of our employees in operating it. This will prevent downtime in case of sickness or holidays because there will always be a colleague who can take over. It is very much so the level of utilisation of the robot, which ensures repayment of the investment. On the other hand, it is great to show our staff that investments in robot technology cannot replace our skilled men on the shopfloor, although the robots make production much more efficient.

Custom-designed robot solution

According to Migatronic sales rep Christian K. Holm, Migatronic often develops new custom-designed welding solutions for its customers. This is necessary because manufacturing companies typically have diversified processes in use.

- We always endeavour to be flexible and develop special solutions, that live up to our customers’ expectations and match their production lines. Our CoWelder is available in 18 standard solutions. Based on these, we develop solutions, which can quickly fit in and make productions more efficient, says Christian Holm.

- But no matter if you invest in a standard solution or a custom-designed welding robot, Migatronic will always provide a high level of support. In case of any queries or problems, we will turn out at once. This is of great importance to our customers, because downtime and lack of operational reliability can be a costly affair for Danish manufacturing companies, he concludes.