Collaborative robots are helping large manufacturers to automate industrial tasks that are too repetitive, too boring, or even too dangerous for human workers: jobs like packaging and palletizing, welding, plasma cutting, machine tending, demurring, pick-and-place, or quality inspection.

For a company that’s not quite a large manufacturer, however, can “cobots” still help with automation?

In a recent Tech Briefs webinar titled Collaborative Robotics: Safely Connecting Man and Machine, a reader had the following question:

“How can a collaborative robot help manufacturers looking to scale their business? Are there any benefits that may vary from traditional industrial automation?”

Read the edited response below from Israel Nunez, an implementation engineer at the Denmark-based Universal Robots.

Israel Nunez, Implementation Engineer, Universal Robots: With collaborative robots, there are some additional benefits for a manufacturer who is trying to scale their business. You see collaborative robots a lot in the high-mix, low-volume environments, but they can really help any manufacturer that’s in these growing stages.

You may have to do a lot of changeover in between parts, or you may not know what’s coming down the line. With collaborative robots, not only are they easy to redeploy and program, you also have the peripheral ecosystem set up to allow you to also easily modify the tooling that goes on the robot. You can scale the actual application when it comes to the programming side, as well as the hardware required to make sure that you’re able to automate a variety of tasks that are maybe coming down the line and may be known or unknown at that point.

Have collaborative robots improved your manufacturing processes? Share your comments and questions below.

Topics:
Assistive Robotics Automation Collaborative Robots and Cobots Consumer Product Manufacturing Custom & Contract Manufacturing Industrial Controls & Automation Manufacturing & Prototyping Robotics

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    Transcript

    00:00:00 [Music] [Applause] as one of the world's largest manufacturers of bathroom accessories Runner Industrial Corporation places special emphasis on time to Market and product quality we are devoted to developing Leading Edge automation technologies that contribute to a highly efficient flexible and reliable

    00:00:27 production line our goal is to meet market demand by upgrading the efficiency of the production process Universal robots surprised us with their efficiency and quality which is much higher than traditional robots in the past year Runner has installed more than 60 Ur robots in their production line there are various applications which include robots

    00:00:52 working in tandem in product Assembly Product pick and place processes inject molding degating heat welding and gas testing preac of Parts automatic pick in place Vision guided pick in place and robots on slides managing injection molding machines with so many steps in the assembly process it is difficult for most single AR robots to do everything

    00:01:27 efficiently that isn't a problem in this setup with two are robots working in tandem with flexible joints and compact size they take up very little room so two different arms can share the same space enabling the entire process to be accurate and [Music] flexible when assembling a product the robot first takes the nut from the

    00:01:54 vibration disc exit and places it into the point picks up the part to be machined and then finally removes it with the UR robot joints capable of 360° rotation in each Direction the robot handles the assembly process requiring great flexibility a UR robot was inverted and installed in the same space as a small disc workstation after the screw is

    00:02:23 tightened the robot takes out the finished product and chooses the position depending on the condition of the conveyor [Music] one ur10 robot can complete four processes injection molding degating heat welding and gas testing while a traditional production worker typically does only one process and leaves the

    00:02:47 semi-finish products to be passed on to the next process via the turnover box when pre-insert a part a UR robot can operate three sets of injection molding machines you utilizing a tool mounted with six grippers and a flexible wrist joint the robot can quickly switch to any loading position using the high flexibility elbow joint the gripper moves from above

    00:03:12 to free up horizontal [Music] movement this Ur robot is equipped with a vision system to locate Parts just put a part on the conveyor and the visual system determines its type and locates position this data is transmitted to the robot which picks up the part reducing the need for Manpower in the feeding [Music]

    00:03:38 process fitting a UR robot on a slide rail can extend its effective reach the rail eliminates the need to move a heavy fix machine and supports a multi- workstation operation a robot can automate the process by managing multiple injection molding machines this saves labor cost while improving efficiency the high installation and maintenance

    00:04:02 cost of traditional industrial robots worried us before we discovered Universal robots their low energy consumption and no need for safety fences freed us from having to rebuild our existing production line the simplified programming process allowed us to continue every operation without the help of a specialized programmer Universal robots has significantly

    00:04:24 reduced our cost a universal robot can be installed adjusted and put into production fast it takes less than an hour to redeploy a UR robot With Ur a new project can be up and running in a week while it takes as much as 6 months to get a traditional robot ready Universal robots production efficiency also saves time and helps us cope with Dynamic Market

    00:04:50 [Applause] demands the company works hard to create a work environment that supports the health and development of employees who are working With Ur robots side by side the robots free the employees from heavy and repetitive work cobots are a powerful innovation in the industrial manufacturing sector enabling automated production with

    00:05:19 unprecedented flexibility as cobots develop and are widely adopted automation will no longer be associated with the mass production of standardized products automated production lines will allow low volumes of various customized products I am very positive about the prospect of universal robots [Music]