How the Six-Button Operator Station Works

A robot­ic work cell may seem like a daunt­ing piece of machin­ery that you have to study for months or years before oper­at­ing, but that is not the case. With user-friend­ly inter­faces like the six-but­ton oper­a­tor sta­tion, com­pa­nies can train their employ­ees on these work cells in a mat­ter of days, and some­times hours, even if the employ­ees have no pri­or expe­ri­ence with robotics.

There are six but­tons on the oper­a­tor sta­tion that all have very dif­fer­ent func­tions. Two but­tons have safe­ty func­tions, and the oth­er four are used to oper­ate and reset the robot to its point of ori­gin. The oper­a­tion but­tons are pret­ty easy to explain: The Exter­nal Start but­ton starts the robot pro­gram; the Hold but­ton holds the robot in a non-emer­gency sit­u­a­tion, allow­ing it to come to a slow stop; the Job A but­ton ver­i­fies for the robot that the work piece has been secured safe­ly in the A side of the work cell, and the robot can begin its appli­ca­tion; and the Default Reset but­ton is tied in with the teach pen­dant and resets the robot if the robot has a non-safe­ty alarm of any kind. These but­tons work to ensure that an oper­a­tor can eas­i­ly start and stop the oper­a­tion process as nec­es­sary from the station.

The oth­er two but­tons are impor­tant to the safe­ty of the oper­a­tor and every­one around the work cell when it is in oper­a­tion. These but­tons on the 6‑button oper­a­tor sta­tion are the Emer­gency Stop but­ton and the Safe­ty Reset but­ton. The Emer­gency Stop but­ton imme­di­ate­ly kills all pow­er to the robot and work cell in case of an emer­gency. The Safe­ty Resent but­ton lights up when any safe­ty pre­cau­tion is vio­lat­ed dur­ing the oper­a­tion of the work cell. The robot will stop oper­a­tion, and once the sit­u­a­tion has been cor­rect­ed, the oper­a­tor must hit the but­ton to com­mu­ni­cate to the robot that it is safe to con­tin­ue operating.

All in all, the 6 but­ton oper­a­tor sta­tion is a great asset to any robot­ic work cell, because of its ease of use and the low­er amount of train­ing time need­ed to learn to use it properly.

Are you inter­est­ed in learn­ing more about six-but­ton oper­a­tor sta­tions or any oth­er robot work cell parts and fea­tures? Then you should call Robots​.com, a cer­ti­fied inte­gra­tor for sev­er­al dif­fer­ent robot­ics com­pa­nies, includ­ing Fanuc, Motoman, KUKA, Uni­ver­sal Robots, and ABB. Our staff will work with you to help you build and design the per­fect work cell for your facil­i­ty and budget.

For more infor­ma­tion, con­tact Robots​.com today online or at 877−762−6881.