Nordbo Mimic automates surface finishing at Bone Interieurwerken

Nordbo Robotics documented a Mimic installation at Dutch custom-furniture manufacturer Bone Interieurwerken on 15 August 2025, pairing a Universal Robots UR10e cobot with an automated spindle and tool-changing arrangement for grinding and deburring. Operators teach tool paths through manual demonstration, allowing the robot to replicate finishing movements without writing conventional motion code. The installation can switch between eight finishing tools according to Nordbo's case study.

Bone produces high-end interiors and furniture with changing geometries, a setting in which conventional robot programming may impose disproportionate setup effort relative to small production runs. Nordbo's Mimic system targets this bottleneck by capturing experienced operators' trajectories rather than requiring a robot programmer to specify each tool path. Custom 3D-printed tooling can also be incorporated in the cell.

The cell was developed with integration partner Jerry Kosters Machine Service. Its automatic tool changes allow successive grinding and deburring operations to run within one installation, while recorded demonstrations provide the motion paths for each finishing step. Nordbo reports more consistent finishing and easier setup at Bone, with operators contributing their existing process knowledge to the robot programmes.