INDUSTRIAL COLLABORATIVE ROBOTS
C
ollaborative Robots bring automation to all people. Traditional robots require massive investments in equipment, expert people, and space, while 6-axis Cobots with their high degree of flexibility and unparalleled simplicity can be easily programmed and slipped into established manufacturing routines to streamline them, and eliminate the high employee cost of short-run dull, dangerous, and dirty tasks.
Cobots are designed to be inherently safe to work
side-by-side with people. It's that simple. Yet
if you are in manufacturing, you probably understand how
large a paradigm shift that is. Suddenly countless
short-run, dangerous, repetitive tasks requiring human
flexibility can be looked at differently. Add
robot vision
guidance, and the productivity gains are almost
unlimited.
In an environment of incessant demand for lower prices,
higher quality, and faster deliveries, something has to
change for you to maintain your profitability. It is very rare to find a technology that exceeds your demands for rapid automation deployment, and which covers such a diverse set of applications. Cobots
have safely been making a proven difference in thousands of
manual production tasks for the past 6 years.
Manufacturers of all sizes in most industries are already
implementing, with a rapid ROI, these powerful new
productivity tools to free their talented staff up from
boring, highly repetitious tasks, as they eliminate staff
shortages and production bottlenecks, reduce scrap and waste,
increase product quality, and generally lower their cost of
production while speeding up their plant's product
throughput.
COLLABORATIVE
ROBOT APPLICATIONS
What can you automate today? Cobots have
successfully been deployed as assistants to humans as the
following videos illustrate: loading and unloading; pick and
place;
packaging and palletizing;
machine tending for CNC;
3D additive manufacturing; metal fabricating; machine
tending for
plastic injection molding and die-casting;
PCB handling;
assembly; parts kitting;
lab analysis and
testing;
gluing dispensing;
screw driving;
drilling;
welding and soldering;
polishing;
quality test and inspection; and many more.
These collaborative robots are easily programmed, and then re-programmed. With their extremely small footprint, they can function smoothly in the same work space occupied by your employees, making cobots the perfect complement to many of the 90% of manufacturing tasks that cannot be practically automated using traditional robots.
COLLABORATIVE ROBOT SAFETY
With
Level 4 Collaborative robots, no safety mechanisms are
required because the cobots themselves are inherently
safe. Consideration must be given, however, to any
danger presented by the parts being moved and the
end-effectors used to hold those parts. Freed from the
cage of safety guarding, cobots’ capacity for precise
performance of repetitive tasks has led to their rapid
adoption for completing tasks human workers find most
boring.
AUTONOMOUS MOBILE ROBOTS
The most recognizable cobots are those with one 6-axis
articulated arm, but collaborative robots are defined by
their safety as an electromechanical coworker to humans, and
as such, some collaborative robots look like traditional
SCARA robots. Others, like the family of autonomous
mobile robots from
MiR, operate
safely in offices, warehouses, and factory floors, delivering
files, inventory, tools and parts as they navigate
independently and safely through buildings that do not
normally need to be modified to accommodate the
transportbots.
The reality experienced by most factories is that there
are not enough qualified workers to fill the roles
manufacturers need. Eliminating boring, repetitive
tasks has led to a higher rate of worker job satisfaction
because skilled workers can be reassigned within the factory
to perform higher value tasks. Empowering people is the
cobots’ most important accomplishment.
HTE Automation is your Cobot resource if you are located in
Kansas, Missouri, or Illinois. Please call HTE Automation at 800-444-4831 to speak with a collaborative robot specialist, or email us at webinfo@htetech.com.
With
Level 4 Collaborative robots, no safety mechanisms are
required because the cobots themselves are inherently
safe. Consideration must be given, however, to any
danger presented by the parts being moved and the
end-effectors used to hold those parts. Freed from the
cage of safety guarding, cobots’ capacity for precise
performance of repetitive tasks has led to their rapid
adoption for completing tasks human workers find most
boring.
