In the past, most industrial robots were designed for capital-intensive, large-volume manufacturing industries.  These systems, which are costly, complex and inflexible, were unsuitable for smaller, discrete manufacturers, who require low cost systems that are quick to install, simple to operate and can be quickly reconfigured to support small production volumes.  Suppliers of industrial robotics solutions have expanded their product offerings, as well as developed creative financing and leasing options, to support the needs of small-to-medium manufacturers (SMM), allowing them to adopt “Lean manufacturing” practices, which dramatically improve productivity, profitability and customer satisfaction.

Representative topics in the Robotic Solutions for Small-to-Medium Manufacturers track focus on the business issues and technical solutions supporting small-to-medium manufacturering using advanced robotics technologies, including:

Business Issues:

• Save Your Factory – Lean Manufacturing
• Selling Robotics to Management
• Financing and Leasing Options

Technical Solutions:

• Small Volume Manufacturing
• Application Specific Systems
• Flexible Automation
• Benchtop Systems
• Multi-Robot Systems
• Precision Assembly
• Human/Machine Interfaces
• Dexterous Grasping and Fine Manipulation
• Case Studies in Discrete Manufacturing

New Applications for Industrial Robotics

Over 1 million industrial robots are currently in service, with approximately 70% of these systems running applications for automakers and their suppliers.  In the past, most industrial robots were designed for capital-intensive, large-volume manufacturing in the automotive, electronics and semiconductor industries.  This percentage has been dropping dramatically as solution providers have added intelligence, vision, mobility and other capabilities to their systems, developed application specific products, and worked with integrators to develop new applications, often for industries that have never utilized robotics technology in the past.

The New Applications for Industrial Robotics track will highlight new, innovative and often surprising ways in which robots and robotic technology are being used to reduce costs and increase competitiveness.

More Information

The new ‘Y Series’ Delta Picker is ideal for the movement and placement of low weight products and offers extremely short cycle times typically 0.27 seconds for 1kg and of 0.45 seconds for a 3kg payload. With the work envelope of 1300mm diameter, this equates to a maximum work rate of 175 picks per minute.

The robot offers 4 axis operation but can have an optional 5th axis for the picking up of two parts in one cycle. Aimed at packaging and sorting process applications it is particularly suited to applications in the food, electronics and solar industries. For more information about the robot click here.

easyFairs PACKAGING IRELAND is a trade-only event where FMCG manufacturers, marketers and retailers get a chance to meet, source solutions and strike up relationships with future suppliers.

The RDS is situated in Ballsbridge, Dublin 4. It is located on a 42-acre site between The Four Seasons Hotel and Herbert Park on Merrion Road.

Click here for more information.

ENDS

For further details contact:  Michael McHugh, Managing Director

T:  +353 (0) 1 628 2824 | E: md@pakautomation.com

Click here for more information.

Auger Filling Systems, Bag Sealers, Cartoning Machines, Conveyor Systems
Flow Wrapping Machines, Hot Foil, Off-Line and Thermal Printers, Linear and Multi-Head Weighers
Metal Detectors, Pick and Place Machines, Pre-Owned Range of Equipment
Robotic Systems, Turnkey Solutions, Vertical Form/Fill/Seal Machines

Total Processing & Packaging 2010 is the UK’s leading integrated processing & packaging exhibition, showcasing production line solutions from beginning to end.

Covering all the major sectors including food & drink, pharmaceutical, cosmetics, household products and chemicals, there is no better opportunity for you to discover new solutions, equipment and technologies to enhance your product lines and automated packaging needs.

If you met with PAK Automation’s MD Michael McHugh, at Total Processing & Packaging 2010 and would like more information contact us today.

For further details contact:  Michael McHugh, Managing Director

T:  +353 (0) 1 628 2824 | E: md@pakautomation.com

Auger Filling Systems, Bag Sealers, Cartoning Machines, Conveyor Systems
Flow Wrapping Machines, Hot Foil, Off-Line and Thermal Printers, Linear and Multi-Head Weighers
Metal Detectors, Pick and Place Machines, Pre-Owned Range of Equipment
Robotic Systems, Turnkey Solutions, Vertical Form/Fill/Seal Machines

The order involved the assembly of five machines for the production of mobile phone screens.

The screens are placed in a jig by the operator and the pick and place picks the screen and places them accurately onto a gasket which is indexed under the placement position by a stepper drive motor.

Once placed onto the gasket, protective labels are applied to the screens to ensure they are protected for their final assembly into the phone casing. Although a semi-automatic solution the system has greatly increased the customers throughput and placement accuracy.

Upon removing a layer of bottles the end of assembly then removes the separation tray and disposes of it through a hatch in the side of the cell. The next phase of this project involves an extension of the cell and a tool changer, upon completion of the filling cycle the capped bottle will be picked up by second tool and placed into the shipping carton and passed through a case closer.

The Kawasaki robot was chosen due to its ease of programming, its flexibility, the simple operation interface and repeatable accuracy. Line efficiencies have significantly improved since installation, so much so that the customer has now decided to invest further in Robotics & Automation.

PAK Automation have recently completed the successful installation of a Kawasaki Four Axis Palletising Robot model ZD 130.

The Kawasaki Robot in this cell is picking and placing 15kg packs from a conveyor and placing them onto one of two pallets. The cell configuration is such that the operator can enter and exit either side of the enclosure to remove one pallet while the second pallet is being built. The integrity of the safety in the cell is maintained by incorporating Sick light curtains, therefore allowing continuous free-flow of product.

Estimated line efficiencies at this site will improve by 20% when the manufacturing process is modified and the output is increased.

Part of the PAK Group, Automation & Robotics Irl exclusively incorporate Erwin Sick sensors, light curtains and bar code readers on all systems supplied. The Sick range of sensors offer security and piece of mind to employers, by incorporating Sick equipment you are guaranteed quality and many years of experience.

Linear and Multihead Weighers | Pick & Place Machines | Vertical Form/Fill/Seal Machines
Conveyor Systems| Hot Foil and Off-line and Thermal Printers | Pre-Owned Range of Equipment
Bag Sealers | Robotic Systems | Turnkey Solutions | Cartoning Machines
Auger Filling Systems | Metal Detectors | Flow Wrapping Machines | Filling Equipment

One application is a three lane machine and the other was a two lane machine.

The printers were mounted upside down inside the existing web path and mounted onto a pneumatic actuator. A PLC was used to control the actuator and issue the print signals to the printer.

The alarm outputs from the printer were connected directly to the PLC and the handshaking between the system and the Thermoformer is also handled by the PLC. The print formats are created on a local PC running Codesoft label design software. The Thermal printers were chosen for their high resolution print (300 DPI) and were replacing existing ink jet printers.

Auger Filling Systems, Bag Sealers, Cartoning Machines, Conveyor Systems
Flow Wrapping Machines, Hot Foil, Off-Line and Thermal Printers, Linear and Multi-Head Weighers
Metal Detectors, Pick and Place Machines, Pre-Owned Range of Equipment
Robotic Systems, Turnkey Solutions, Vertical Form/Fill/Seal Machines

Michael McHugh,
Chief Executive of Automation & Robotics Irl.

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Automation & Robotics Irl is a division of Pak Automation Limited of Lucan, Co Dublin, and is a systems integrator for Kawasaki 6-axis Robots and Toshiba Scara Robots.

ROBOT …from the Czech word “Robota” – meaning “Tedious Labour”

The first programmable robot was designed by George Devol in 1954. Devol went on to set up the Unimation organisation, from whom General Motors purchased the first industrial robot in 1962. At this time robots were hydraulic, as it was not until around 1977 that the electric powered industrial robot would surface.

Globally the automotive sector still accounts for a large portion of robot application. There are currently in excess of 760,000 robots in operation worldwide, with approximately 47% of these in Japan. However, with the lack of investment and the decline in the automotive sector in recent years, robot manufacturers are increasingly looking to non-automotive applications.

Plummeting prices…

Advances in power electronics technology have been rapid. This has enabled industrial robots to become more reliable, while enormously increasing performance. At the same time prices for robots have been plummeting.

Every year industrial robots are increasing in speed, accuracy and dexterity of movement, while providing ever greater reach and payload. Controls and
programming languages have become more user-friendly, further enhancing the application possibilities for industry.

…and ‘Return-on-Investment’

Falling or stable robot prices together with increased labour costs and continuously improving technology are major driving forces behind continued investment in industrial robotics. Add to that the possibility of a Return-on-Investment (ROI) sometimes as short as one year proves that this technology needs to be embraced. Companies like Automation & Robotics Irl specialise in bespoke projects where the robot is the core of an automation solution. In such applications, with the integration of industrial robot technology, Return-on-Investment, or payback, very quickly becomes evident.

The modern multi-axis articulated robot is an all-electric machine, utilising AC brushless braked servo motors with precise gearboxes and encoders for positional feedback. These robots are very fast and are repeatably accurate in their positioning, nominally better than 0.5mm. With a 6-axis robot you gain the dexterity of the unique “wrist action”, which greatly adds to the different robot postures and possibilities.

Countering hazards

Robots are now widely used in complex palletising and materials handling applications where historically there may have been a risk to operators from RSI or exposure to undue hazards. In palletising operations, where the robot is the core of the cell, most of the automation integration involves the pallet handling and the marshalling of the product to be palletised.

In order for a company to reap the benefits of robots they must have sufficient in-house technological know-how as well as a thorough comprehension of their production processes. Very often when selling the concept of automation utilising robots there is little discussion around the robot itself and its abilities, most of the focus being on the integration skills being deployed in the particular application. For example there is little point in having a high speed, high accuracy robot when you do not have the same control over the rest of the components of the automation cell.

‘Flexible Automation’

Robots in industry are now being branded ‘flexible automation’ because as well as the other benefits we have indicated robots can be re-deployed, say when a line needs to be altered because of product changes or reconfigured to handle a new process or product. As long as the robot has the reach and payload capacity to suit the new configuration usually it can perform new tasks through re-programming and minimal re-tooling in contrast to traditional automation methods.

The average life expectancy of most industrial robots is 12-15 years. Therefore, when examining the capital expenditure involved, it is always worthwhile considering the benefits that redeployment of the technology can provide.

Great opportunities exist for industrial robots in the manufacturing industry – where robots are used for press transfer, welding, gluing, assembly, pick and place, stacking/palletising, cutting, grinding, polishing and painting, etc.

Industrial robots work in all manner of conditions and are not affected by smoke, heat or chemicals. The repetitive tasks they carry out are predefined and the conditions surrounding the robot cell are also all predetermined. Most automation solutions are what we call ‘on demand systems’, in other words they will happily operate in standby mode waiting for product to arrive to the cell or, alternatively, await a signal from upstream or downstream equipment.

Employment concerns

Concerns have often been raised in the past as to the threat posed to employment by robots. Undoubtedly, certain jobs are under threat by this technology – but they are categorised by “that job” as distinct from “a job” where, as already pointed out, the conditions involved are not suitable for an operator or involve Health and Safety issues.

To give an appreciation of the size and scale of articulated (6-axis) robots: a large robot could have a payload capacity of 500Kgs and a reach of 3.0 metres, its envelope of operation would extend 320 degrees around its joint 1 (base) and it would have the ability to reach below and behind itself. The payload referred to is a gross payload and would include the weight of the gripper or actuator fitted to that robot – so for example a robot with a 130Kg payload and an end-of-arm (EOA) assembly or tool of 60Kg, this would leave a maximum of product payload of 70Kg.

Many flexible automation solutions require more reach than payload, as the automation cell can be multitasking and the robot’s end-of-arm assembly can also be a multitasking device. In palletising operations the EOA assembly obviously is tooled to pick up the product being palletised, however in addition to this it may for example be necessary for the robot to place a layer sheet on every second layer and so the correctly designed EOA assembly gives this flexibility. The robot can also build multiple pallets at one time by marshalling the product to buffer/accumulation areas within the reach of the robot and then having pallets fed in around the robot so as to get more from the cell.

The quest for new applications

As with most technology-based products the advances in recent years have been dramatic. In the ten years between 1990 and 2000 the cost of robots has reduced by approximately 43%, the speed of the 6-axis machine has increased by 39%, the maximum reach has increased by 36% and the repetition accuracy has increased by 61%. The quest now is for new applications and new sectors which can benefit from robotics. The packaging industry in the last 3-5 years has been a good growth sector, with the medical device sector being the next big growth potential market.

Robots in the home

Household and domestic markets are viewed by some to be another big area for robot technology. However, the technology incorporated in your automatic vacuum cleaner or automatic lawn mower will differ greatly from the industrial robots we have discussed here; they will match the demand for consumer electronics and so will be gadget and cost driven.

In the meantime, industrial robots will continue to seek out new markets where they can eradicate tedious tasks carried out by reluctant and costly operatives, with estimates of a 26% increase in the number of robots in service by 2005 now being forecast.

Auger Filling Systems, Bag Sealers, Cartoning Machines, Conveyor Systems
Flow Wrapping Machines, Hot Foil, Off-Line and Thermal Printers, Linear and Multi-Head Weighers
Metal Detectors, Pick and Place Machines, Pre-Owned Range of Equipment
Robotic Systems, Turnkey Solutions, Vertical Form/Fill/Seal Machines

The system uses an industrial robot on a skid mount heavy duty base, supplied complete with a short infeed conveyor, and custom tooling to suit the product being handled.

Sliding Doors enable the operator to take out the filled pallet and place in the new pallet. Two pallet build locations are in the cell and each side can be independently accessed whilst the robot continues to build on the opposite side.

The system can handle layer sheets, and layer sheet locations can be provided on both sides of the system.

Many companies are now embracing Robot Technology for the first time due to the ongoing need to reduce costs and increase efficiency. The Pak Automation Group continues to focus on Automation For Industry with the emphasis on delivering creative solutions with a short Payback period – often less than 14 months!

Auger Filling Systems, Bag Sealers, Cartoning Machines, Conveyor Systems
Flow Wrapping Machines, Hot Foil, Off-Line and Thermal Printers, Linear and Multi-Head Weighers
Metal Detectors, Pick and Place Machines, Pre-Owned Range of Equipment
Robotic Systems, Turnkey Solutions, Vertical Form/Fill/Seal Machines