Industries where collaborative industrial robots find use
Collaborative robots also known as cobots have gained a lot of traction and have surpassed the robotics market. It is estimated that the collaborative robot market will grow significantly in the coming years. Cobots are the future and have the potential to bring about a transformation in the way we work. These robotic solutions are designed with safety features such as collision detection and force feedback so that these are safe to be used alongside the human workforce.
Eventually, several manufacturers have jumped onto the bandwagon of cobots by installing them in their companies. Many more industries are eyeing to use cobots to pave the way for automation in the future. The major reasons why several industries use cobots are – affordability, flexibility, fastness, easy to set up and simple to use. So, what are the industries that use these collaborative industrial robots? Well, you can get to know about the same from here.
Collaborative industrial robots handle picking and placing
One of the benefits of using collaborative robots is to reduce the complexity and cost involved in manual functioning of repetitive tasks that human workers do daily. The mundane nature of these tasks can result in mistakes and increases the chance of strain and injury. So, cobots are used in pick and place applications, which is packaging and sorting from a conveyor or tray. Usually, these tasks require advanced vision systems to grab the object and is done using a vacuum cup effector or gripper.
Packaging and palletizing of products is a section of pick and place. Before leaving the factory, the products have to be adequately prepared for shipment. This includes processes such as
- Shrink wrapping of products
- Box assembly and loading
- Placing or collating boxes into a pallet
Collaborative industrial robots handle machine tending effectively
Machine tending needs the workforce to stand in front of an injection-modeling machine, a CNC machine or any other similar device for long hours. It will require tool changes and replacement of necessary raw materials. It is a long and tiresome process that can make the human workforce prone to errors. Instead of humans, cobots can handle this process so that there is increased productivity.
The cobots can handle even quality checks. These robots are capable of performing a quality inspection of parts. Usually, it involves a complete inspection of the parts once they are finished and comparing them against CAD models. The use of cobots will automate the process by multiple high-resolution cameras mounted on them. This ensures faster results. Using cobots for inspection will result in higher-quality inspection and more accurate production.
Process and finishing ability of collaborative industrial robots can’t be ignored.
Using a cobot for the process tasks will save a lot of time that is required to train new employees to handle the task. It is time-saving as the programming done on one unit can be copied to the other units. Also, cobots produce precise outputs. Notably, collaborative robots are easy to program, which is one of its benefits.
Besides process tasks, even finishing tasks can be performed by collaborative robots. A cobot can provide necessary force, accuracy, and repetition that is needed for finishing jobs. It includes grinding, deburring and polishing. These collaborative robots can be either taught manually or through computer programming methods. The force control capability of these cobots makes them more robust in handling these tasks. This lets robots to deal with different dimensional parts, which is possible to achieve via force sensing.