Vermeiren, customer of the first hour

Since then, Vermeiren has acquired 6 Panasonic welding robots from Valk Welding for the production at that time in Belgium, some of from which some of them later moved with the production relocation to Poland, where more than 20 units were delivered subsequently . “The attractive price and the support Valk Welding was able to provide were good reasons for us to choose for Panasonic”, head R & D Patrick Jespers says, who at the time experienced the commissioning of the first welding robot in 1988.

Due to increasing competition from low-wage countries, Vermeiren was forced to critically review the production costs. Although the bending and welding of the frames are only a small part of the production process, robotisation of the welding production has already resulted in considerable savings. Six years later, the wheelchair manufacturer decided to move the entire production to Poland because of the much lower wage costs. “Upholstery, wheel production, and assembly remain labour-intensive activities that offer few possibilities for automation”, Patrick Jespers explains.

Creation of Reha-Pol-A

At the start of our Polish establishment in mid-1994, a number of welding robots moved from the factory in Kalmthout in Belgium. The installation in Poland was done by people from Valk Welding. Wim Rombeek, who at the time worked as an advisor at Valk Welding: “Valk Welding helped to dismantle the robot systems in Belgium and to make it as easy as possible to restart them in Poland. At that time, Valk Welding mechanics regularly drove around 1000 km to Poland with our people to do the necessary follow-up work. Gradually, this was taken over by people locally from both Vermeiren and the Valk Welding technicians from the Czech Republic.”

Continuous innovation

From the start in 1994, Valk Welding supplied 23 welding robots, replacing technically outdated welding robots with new ones. “Older types continued to produce until they eventually had too many technical problems to keep them in service”. The fact that a robot has been depreciated over the course of several years is no reason to replace it with a new one,” Patrick Jespers concludes. The oldest, still working Panasonic welding robot at Reha-Pol-A is from 1996.