Smoker Craft, Inc., based in New Paris, IN is a family-owned and operator
manufacturer of mid-length recreational boats, including three pontoon
brands, the Smoker Craft fiberglass brand, and several aluminum V Bottom
boats.
After more than 100 years of fully manual production, Smoker Craft received
a Manufacturing Readiness Grant through Conexus Indiana. Grants are provided
to help manufacturers make innovative capital investments in smart
manufacturing at their Indiana operations - leveraging state-of-the-art
technologies including robotic automation.
Before starting the automation project, Smoker Craft worked with enFocus, a
nonprofit organization that helps manufacturers in Indiana with high-impact
projects. EnFocus steered Smoker Craft in the right direction based on their
experience in manufacturing and system integration. Following that
collaboration, Smoker Craft understood that the key to making a successful
transition to automation required a skilled and experienced robotic system
integrator. Guide Engineering, a FANUC Authorized System Integrator was a
great match.
Right from the start, Guide Engineering’s designer worked very closely with
the team at Smoker Craft to develop an automation system to quickly weld
aluminum pontoons and various components. They collaborated every step of
the way, and today, the robotic tube welding system is a huge success for
Smoker Craft.
The system uses three FANUC ARC Mate 120iD robots to quickly weld pontoons
in just 10-12 minutes each. In addition, the automation meets Smoker Craft’s
quality and consistency standards, and relieves their highly skilled welding
team from the strenuous tasks related to welding pontoons.
Smoker Craft’s automation system continues to produce high-quality pontoons
that meet the needs of their rapidly growing customer base, now and in the
years to come.