Life Line Emergency Vehicles deploys robotic sander from GrayMatter Robotics

GrayMatter Robotics recently provided a peek into its deployment with Life Line Emergency Vehicles. Sumner, Iowa-based Life Line Emergency Vehicles has 35 years of experience building life-saving ambulances, with an emphasis on quality, safety, and durability. 

Each of Life Line’s vehicles such as ambulances is one of a kind and built according to the customer’s needs and specifications. The company said it has built a reputation around customer service and craftsmanship to help its customers provide better patient care.

Robustness is key in this line of work. These vehicles will be saving people’s lives, so malfunctions aren’t an option. 

However, the process of building an ambulance is incredibly labor-intensive. In recent years, Life Line said it has struggled to find enough people to continue serving for its customers.

Sanding, in particular, is a difficult part of the vehicle-construction process. It involves going up and down ladders, dragging hoses around, and hauling heaving equipment. It’s also time-consuming and pulls Life Line’s employees away from work that is better suited for humans.

This is where GrayMatter Robotics comes in. The Carson, Calif.-based company offers its robotic sanders through a robotics-as-a-service (RaaS) model.

It said they can relieve shop floor workers of tedious and ergonomically challenging tasks. They can also enhance production capacity and reduce scrap, repair, and rework costs, said GrayMatter. 

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Scan&Sand designed for reliable finishing

Scan&Sand is an AI-powered system that scans an object and sands it with the push of a button. GrayMatter created the system for high-mix manufacturing, where there is great variety in the shape and size of pieces that need to be sanded. 

The company said its technology can handle complex geometries with ease. The robots can prepare a surface and sand for shape correction. 

GrayMatter’s system autonomously replaces worn sandpaper and switches between different grits as needed. It can also swap end-of-arm tools (EOAT) to shift from sanding to grinding or other applications in just minutes. 

With Scan&Sand, operators can precisely define sanding areas by marking them directly on the part. The system’s advanced packages feature built-in quality control for precise measurement of roughness, gloss, or surface imperfections.

GreyMatter also uses high-fidelity sensors to swiftly scan and model parts within minutes, creating a precise, unique working model for each component placed in the cell.

The company offers multiple Scan&Sand configurations, so the system can fit into a variety of workflows. These include dual-arm and rail configurations, as well as mobile arm and rail configurations.

Life Line shares its results with GrayMatter

Life Line said that GrayMatter’s technology filled essential gaps in its production. The vehicle maker noted that this autonomous technology wouldn’t be replacing any workers, as there simply weren’t enough people to get everything done without the robots. 

In addition to filling these gaps, GrayMatter also made production faster for Life Line. Its employees said it was able to shave 45 minutes off of sanding a single raw truck. For a primer truck, GrayMatter was able to knock 30 minutes to an hour off of the sanding time. 

The Life Line team also noted that GrayMatter was a very present partner when it came to deploying this technology. The vendor didn’t just send them a robot and disappear, it said. In addition, GrayMatter was upfront about the learning curve of its robots, said Life Line’s team.