Six-Axis Robot Technology

Six-axis robots have been around for a while; how­ev­er, they are quick­ly evolv­ing in pro­gram­ming com­plex­i­ty and pro­vid­ing for quick, yet pre­cise prod­ucts. They are amaz­ing­ly dex­ter­ous and have already been assigned mis­sions in space, ocean’s depths, bat­tle­fields, and hos­pi­tal oper­at­ing rooms. 

The six axes allows for a large usable work area while also main­tain­ing a very com­pact foot­print. In addi­tion, there are now advanced tools on the robots such as TAST, Touch Sens­ing, 2D or 3D Vision Sys­tems, and Laser Vision Track­ing. These tech­nolo­gies aid in decreas­ing prob­lems caused by part and tool­ing imper­fec­tions and per­mits an expan­sion of weld­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties that were not pre­vi­ous­ly possible.

Through Arc Seam Track­ing (TAST) is a low-cost soft­ware that uses weld­ing cur­rent feed­back to deter­mine the ver­ti­cal and lat­er­al posi­tion of the torch. TAST is best used in appli­ca­tions with mate­r­i­al thick­ness greater than 2 mm and trav­el speeds between 35 – 50 inch­es ipm (inch­es per minute).

Touch Sens­ing is also a low-cost soft­ware that uses the weld­ing elec­trode, noz­zle, or oth­er sens­ing point­er to make elec­tri­cal con­tact with the part. It allows for adjust­ments in one, two, or three dimensions.

2D or 3D Vision Sys­tems great­ly enhances cycle time. Touch sens­ing can take 3 – 5 sec­onds to per­form cal­cu­la­tions for a joint, where­as a 2D cam­era can cut this time to tenths of a sec­ond. 2D Vision Sys­tems also have an excel­lent error detec­tion func­tion that pre­vents an error in route or detects it before the robot exe­cutes the next action. 3D sys­tems use an addi­tion­al laser that adds detec­tion for changes in height, pitch, and yaw.

Laser Vision Track­ing pro­vides a three-dimen­sion­al real time method for track­ing weld seams. The camera’s soft­ware detects the joint seam based on the dis­tor­tion on the pro­ject­ed laser line, and then pro­vides feed­back to the robot regard­ing gap and fit up vari­a­tions. The laser uses a sin­gle wave­length mak­ing it unsus­cep­ti­ble to ambi­ent light inter­fer­ence. Dig­i­tal tech­nol­o­gy allows for the sen­sor to have a wider range, clear­er sig­nal, and rough­ly four times more pre­cise and faster scan­ning rates.

Anoth­er ben­e­fit to these six-axis robots is the cable man­age­ment sys­tems that pro­vide a more flex­i­ble cable approach. One long restric­tive cable pack­age pre­vents move­ment and is more like­ly to get dam­aged. So the six-axis robot’s cords are divid­ed into three sec­tions which is the key to longer-last­ing cables. There are also cable options that run inter­nal­ly, through the robot arm to pro­tect them from wear and tear. 

These tech­nolo­gies all help to speed up pro­duc­tion, while also increas­ing the accu­ra­cy dur­ing appli­ca­tions – improv­ing pro­duc­tiv­i­ty while not sac­ri­fic­ing qual­i­ty. To read even more about the ben­e­fits of six axis robots, click here.

It is now evi­dent why the request for six-axis robots is on the rise with their lim­it­less appli­ca­tions.

Are you inter­est­ed in a six-axis robot and the tech­nol­o­gy that they can bring to a pro­duc­tion line? If this is the case, then you should con­tact Robots​.com, a cer­ti­fied inte­gra­tor for some of the top robot­ics com­pa­nies in the indus­try, includ­ing Fanuc, Motoman, KUKA, and ABB.

Our staff will work with you help you devel­op the per­fect robot­ic sys­tem for your facil­i­ty, ensur­ing that you get the best sys­tem and the best price for your mon­ey. Give us a call at 877−762−6881 or reach rep­re­sen­ta­tives online.