Robots that will sew shoes have been created at Belvest
A technological breakthrough in footwear production is happening before our eyes. Very soon, a person will feel like they are in a science fiction movie at a shoe factory: robotic arms will cut pieces of leather, stitch shoe components, and glue the soles.
Creating one pair requires performing 185 operations, many of which are already being mastered by robotic systems.
Belvest has long embraced this trend, but has only now decided to share the interim results of its practical research.
According to General Director Yuri Sumaneev, the equipment being developed in-house by the enterprise has no analogues or prototypes in the world. This is handled by the specially created scientific and technical center "Laboratory of Digital Technologies".
Belvest's scientific and technical center was spun off into a separate company, Lacit LLC, in 2017 and registered as a resident of the Hi-Tech Park.
This year, it is planned to develop prototype robotic systems into industrial models and, starting from the summer, to gradually implement them into production processes, particularly in leather cutting and sewing operations, while also exploring the possibility of launching fully robotic sections.
Today, production is developing through human cognitive activity; artificial intelligence, robots, and other cutting-edge technologies help reduce costs and increase productivity.
It is no longer possible, nor makes sense, to ensure efficiency and increase enterprise returns through simple mechanical additions and extensive steps, believes Yuri Sumaneev.
The technologies developed at "Latsit" confirm this and successfully cope with tasks that seemed unsolvable just yesterday. Until recently, fine motor skills remained the prerogative of humans. That is why robotization is most actively occurring in the automotive industry, where the share of manual labor is significantly smaller and easier to automate.
Moreover, in shoemaking, one has to work with genuine leather, which is a difficult material to manipulate. But thanks to "Latsit's" developments, a shoe factory becomes as high-tech as a car plant.
For example, one of the robots developed at the scientific and technical center is equipped with machine vision, reacts to sudden obstacles, changes in the external situation, and is trained to interact with other objects in production. One of its functions is to move materials or workpieces on the assembly line.
Externally, the manipulator robot resembles the R2D2 droid from the movie "Star Wars."
At the same time, dozens of such robotic "carts" must move around the workshop between other automated complexes, which in turn perform main and auxiliary operations. In such a workshop, there will be no place for humans; robot control will be carried out from a single center in a separate room.
Discussing the prospects of robotization for the company, Yuri Sumaneev is extremely cautious in assessing the possible economic effect. According to him, it depends on the level of costs and the expected income, which can be predicted when it becomes clear how many workers the robotic complexes can replace.
There is another important aspect. The installation capacity of "Belvest" is about 2 million pairs per year. At the same time, the work of the workshops is structured according to the principles of small-batch production, when up to 1.5 thousand models of men's and women's shoes are created.
The ability to quickly respond to the whims of fashion is one of the prerequisites for maintaining competitiveness in the Instagram era. Therefore, automation and robotization provide a manufacturing company with an additional degree of freedom and flexibility, allowing it to react much faster to new fashion trends and adapt its collections accordingly.