As in the past, manufacturers are looking for ways to improve their processes and increase productivity. By applying robotic automation, a manufacturing plant can benefit in many ways. Some of these benefits include higher uptime of machines, increased flexibility, and predictable production and improved yields made possible through process consistency. Robotic automation also gives manufacturers a way to combat labor shortages while helping to improve safety and ergonomics for employees. By adopting robotic technology, today's machining shops are finding ways to produce more parts with less capital and labor. Many companies initially justify a robotic system with labor savings, but in the end they benefit from a lower cost-per-part--a definite competitive advantage.
Increasing Uptime with Predictable Production and the Flexibility to Accommodate Change
For the last four decades, manufacturers have used robots to automate turning, milling, grinding, dial machines, and other types of metal-cutting machine tools. Though growth in the machine tool market has been relatively flat, the robotic machine tending market has increased at a steady rate of approximately 15% annually over the last few years. According to the Robotics Industry Association (RIA), 1999 was another record year, breaking all previous records. RIA estimates 100,000 robots are now installed in the United States, second only to Japan in overall robotic use.
Much like the CNC wave that took machine tools from manual operation to new levels of productivity and quality, robotics has experienced a similar evolution and now offers maximum performance and quality. As is the case with many microprocessor-based products, robot costs are decreasing while their performance is increasing and the technology is becoming easier to use. The opportunity for manufacturers to increase productivity, improve quality, and meet production requirements for short product life cycles is greater than ever before.
For example, using a simple payback analysis, a robot cell to tend lathes or mills producing small parts weighing less than 5 kg has an expected one-year payback. Such a cell might include a Fanuc Robotics LR Mate 100i robot, end-of-arm-tooling, conveyor infeed and outfeed, and guarding. A critical contributor to the quick payback is increased machine uptime. Manually loaded machine tools achieve approximately 65% productivity. In contrast, users of robotic automation achieve productivity rates up to 95%.
Multitasking robot controls can coordinate robot arm motion with other activities in a machine-tending cell. For example, a robot can move from position A to B to place a part while simultaneously communicating with peripheral devices such as a PLC, operator panel, or plant network.
Robots with six axes of motion offer dexterity that mimics the human arm. They can carry more weight than an average human and perform with precision without the fatigue or injury factor experienced by manual labor. Much like an operator, a robot can be redeployed to a different machine and retooled with minimal resources. Depending on the complexity of the application, redeployed robots can save an average of 30-40% of the robot system retooling cost.
Improve Part Handling and Setup; Eliminate Operator Error and Control Quality
Users of robotic automation gain efficiencies in material handling and setup because production is predictable and controlled--human error is reduced or eliminated. After a system has been debugged and is in production, the robot performs its programmed task day after day. This allows manufacturers to predict throughput accurately and to schedule insert changes and tool replacement. By "closing the loop" with post-process gauges serviced by the robot, tool offsets can be automated, providing a higher level of process control.
Machine vision is another technology that can dramatically decrease setup and changeover time. A vision system can be used as the "eyes" of the robot, guiding it to parts that are delivered on belt conveyors, trays, or other simple material handling equipment. This "fixtureless" approach reduces or eliminates the capital costs and lost productive time associated with changeover adjustments to conventional pallet transfer systems. The same vision system could also perform inspection operations on finished parts--another tool for enhanced process control.
Successful vision applications have increased production output by 20% and reduced changeover time by 50%. By combining machine vision and simple part-feeder technology, manufacturers can solve the difficult challenge of singulating parts that are delivered in bulk to a machining operation.
Combating the Labor Shortage and Improving the Work Environment
With the national unemployment rate currently at record lows, many companies are looking to robotic automation for help. Manufacturers see robots as a proven tool to allow operators to oversee more than one machine. With an operator responsible for multiple machines, manufacturers achieve increased machine productivity and better employee utilization. Operators are reallocated to higher-value tasks such as detailed part inspection, resolving production problems, and monitoring and maintaining the process and equipment to ensure the highest possible production yields.
Eye on the Future
Industrial servo-controlled robots used for material handling are capable of manipulating payloads ranging from 3-400 kg, with repeatability of +/-0.04 to +/- 0.3 mm, and can reach as long as 10.5 m. Arm designs range from 4 axes (for relatively simple planar tasks) to 6 axes (for more complex handling/processing challenges). Fanuc Robotics recently introduced the Toploader series of robots--an innovative design targeted specifically at machine tool, injection mold, die cast, and similar machine tending applications. The Toploader series has several 6-axis overhead mounted robot models that vary in payload, reach, and linear stroke. The models include the M-6iT, M-16iLT, and M-16iT, complemented by the new M-710iT, with a 70 kg payload for medium to heavy material handling applications.
Fanuc Robotics introduced the Toploader series as the culmination of an in-depth market investigation that included OEMs and distributors, automation integrators, and end users. The investigation identified a clear, consistent message: Combine the overhead mounting and "scalability" of conventional gantries with the versatility and reliability of traditional floor-mounted "pedestal" robots. The Toploaders are designed for material handling and machine tending, but they can also perform value-added post-processing operations such as deburring, palletizing, and gauging.
The Toploaders:
- Improve machine productivity by as much as 30%.
- Reduce capital and maintenance costs by allowing simple devices to replace complex material handling peripherals. For example, if machining time allows, manufacturers can automate multiple horizontal and vertical spindle machines with one Toploader robot vs. using a traditional gantry to automate the lathe and a floor-mounted articulated robot to tend the machining centers.
- Minimize installation time and startup expense through easy installation alignment (i.e., conversion of CNC lathes' spindle centerline alignment to a simple gantry's linear axis).
- Reduce post-installation maintenance cost with a smaller number of moving components (i.e., eliminate rotary actuators to reorient the parts, using the robot to flip the part with simple fixed fixtures/stands).
- Maximize uptime through superior fault tolerance, quick error recovery, and proven Fanuc reliability.
- Service multiple vertical and/or horizontal machines.
- Balance asynchronous processes by maintaining in-process part buffers.
- Perform value-added processing operations such as gauging, deburring, deflashing, and labeling, in addition to basic material handling tasks.
- Adapt easily to existing plant layouts.
The robotics industry will continue to provide unique system solutions for the machine tool industry. By working in partnership with industry leaders, robotics companies can provide expertise to help manufacturers find solutions in the early planning stages of product development, whether a customer is building a new manufacturing facility or improving existing facilities.
