The ICD robotics working group visited Mustad Friesland in Drachten on Friday, May 24. Mustad Friesland is part of Mustad Hoofcare, which is located in 18 countries with no fewer than 7 factories, including the horseshoe factory in Drachten. At Mustad Hoofdare is a global manufacturer and marketer of hoof care products, serving the needs of farriers and horse owners, with hoof nails, horseshoes, rasps and farrier tools. The company operates in nearly 100 countries around the world. 

Millions of horseshoes are produced in Friesland every year, in a wide variety of variants. In the factory, a piece of steel is transformed into a horseshoe at a heat of approximately 1200 degrees.

Vision technique

But there is more going on, whatever the reason for the visit. The hole pattern is precise (where the hoof nails will later go in to secure the shoe to the hoof) and that is why vision technology is used. 

Data analysis

Mustad Friesland uses Power BI. This is a kind of dashboard that can be used to accurately monitor how much incorrect output there is, which machine makes the most errors and what types of errors they involve. The working group was impressed by this level of data analysis. 

Robotics

The company has now installed one machine with a robot, two others will follow soon. These robots come from Sweden, where the production location 'Mustad Bruks' has been using robotics for some time. The robots place the horseshoes in a machine for a specific finishing process and then take them out again. 

It was an interesting afternoon during which there was enthusiastic discussion and sparring.