Feed the machine: machine tending robots

Why should a com­pa­ny con­sid­er automat­ing a machine tool? First, robots increase machine pro­duc­tion by up to 20%. A robot can also per­form sec­ondary oper­a­tions and elim­i­nate fix­tures. Robots elim­i­nate oper­a­tor safe­ty issues, and increase the qual­i­ty of the product. 

Using a robot for machine tend­ing is one of the most com­mon appli­ca­tions of robots. Machine tend­ing robots feed parts in and out of the machine, as well as super­vise the machine while it per­forms the job. Not only do work­ers avoid haz­ardous con­di­tions, but robots are well-suit­ed for machine tending.

Machine tend­ing robots offer high­er spin­dle uti­liza­tion, the pos­si­bil­i­ty for auto­mat­ic debur­ring, gag­ing, or assem­bly. The machines they can work with include rotary and lin­ear trans­fer machines, machin­ing cen­ters, tap­ping cen­ters, grind­ing machines, hon­ing machines, bor­ing machines, cut­ting machines, and super fin­ish machines.

Fanuc offers a full range of machin­ing robots for a com­plete machine tool solu­tion. These indus­tri­al machin­ing robots pro­vide increased flex­i­bil­i­ty from fixed automa­tion, min­i­mized errors, max­i­mized out­put with high speed and per­for­mance, and increased sys­tem up-time. Some of the more pop­u­lar Fanuc machine tend­ing robots include: R‑2000iA/​125L, LR Mate 200iC/​5L, M‑420iA, and even a col­lab­o­ra­tive ver­sion — the CR-35iA.

Fanuc devel­oped the V‑500iA PC-based vision sys­tem to make robot­ic automa­tion of low-vol­ume man­u­fac­tur­ing prac­ti­cal. Shops of all sizes should be able to enjoy the ben­e­fits of robot­ic machine tend­ing. The V‑500iA tech­nol­o­gy is capa­ble of dis­tin­guish­ing between pieces of mate­r­i­al, allow­ing for a more ver­sa­tile system. 

Robots like the Fanuc M‑16iB can be equipped with V‑500iA/​3DL laser vision sen­sor and FS-30 Force Sen­sor iden­ti­fied and locat­ed a robot clus­ter gear assem­bly from a tray, picked it up, and assem­bled parts for the gear assembly. 

Motoman also has a wide vari­ety of machine tend­ing robots to include dual-armed, shelf mount­ed or gantry-styled robots. Prod­uct qual­i­ty is improved in process­es like bor­ing, milling, and grind­ing. Some of more pop­u­lar Motoman machine tend­ing robot mod­els include the EH80, HP50-20, HP20D, and the SIA20D.

ABB and KUKA also have a wide range of machine tend­ing robots to assist a large vari­ety of machines, from press­es and shears to injec­tion mold­ing machines. 

Uni­ver­sal Robots are also being used for machine tend­ing appli­ca­tions. Their abil­i­ty to work in the same area as a work­er saves floor­space and improves work­er pro­duc­tiv­i­ty. Some­times, machin­ing process­es do require human involve­ment, but col­lab­o­ra­tive robots give the abil­i­ty to assist that work­er with a heavy load or to ensure accu­ra­cy every time a part is placed into or pulled out of a machine. 

Robots​.com car­ries a large vari­ety of machine tend­ing robots. For help choos­ing the right one for your facil­i­ty, con­tact us today by call­ing 877−762−6881 or fill out our con­tact form to get more infor­ma­tion and a quick price quote.