In many industries flexible
production demands mean
short runs of customised
products are becoming
more commonplace. A
robot that can be used
for component assembly
tasks and then moved
down the production line
to help pack the products
in individual containers
or palletise a batch for
delivery offers much
more of a value-added
contribution from a single
robot.
Cost reduction is being achieved by
enabling robot control via a stock
PLC while the ability to not only
program a robot easily to perform a
variety of different tasks, but also to
send it around the production floor
work at different stations to perform
them is delivering a new level of
flexibility and availability.
PLC power
Offering full robot control from a PLC
means that whenever a PLC is being
used it can be seconded to include
robot control in the list of tasks it
is already performing. Not having
to purchase or house an additional
robot controller module in the panel
or on the machine not only reduces
the initial purchase cost, it also
reduces the panel space required,
simplifies wiring and can reduce
development time for a new machine.
A perfect example of this in action
is the revolutionary new Shawpak
thermoforming packaging machine
built by Riverside Medical Packaging.
By using a servo-controlled drum
instead of a conveyor system and
integrating a robot arm for product
insertion on a machine that already
had a PLC onboard, the Shawpak
machines are able to replace a
cleanroom packing line of anything
up to 20m in length with a unit that
occupies as little as 2m2.
Combining that cost-effective PLC
controlled robot solution with an
autonomous vehicle that can be used
to deploy the robot on any number
of individual work stations allows
the economics to be recalculated all
over again. Which is exactly what the
development team at AGV specialist
Mirage has done.
How far will robots enter the production environment? The answer is clearly,
as far as it is economically possible for them to go, which judging by the
evidence is virtually everywhere.
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