Six-axis robots add flexibility to automotive component adhesives

Flex­i­bil­i­ty is one of the most impor­tant con­sid­er­a­tions when look­ing at indus­tri­al robots. Six-axis robots add a great amount of flex­i­bil­i­ty to appli­ca­tions, as opposed to four-axis robots. KUKA Robot­ics ran into a man­u­fac­tur­er that request­ed a six-axis robot that added high lev­els of flex­i­bil­i­ty – enough flex­i­bil­i­ty to con­vert to any auto­mo­bile type with­out difficulty.

The auto­mo­tive man­u­fac­tur­er was look­ing to add flex­i­bil­i­ty with six-axis robots inte­grat­ed into the appli­ca­tion of glu­ing on their auto­mo­tive add-on com­po­nents. The lev­el of flex­i­bil­i­ty could only be achieved with a high­ly adapt­able six-axis robot, accord­ing to KUKA.

Since the man­u­fac­tur­ing was ​“in-line,” it was com­plete­ly nec­es­sary for the robots per­form­ing the oper­a­tions to meet spe­cif­ic cycle times, KUKA stat­ed. With­out that, the pro­duc­tion line would be com­pro­mised. The glu­ing appli­ca­tion had to be with­in two sec­onds of the injec­tion mold­ing process cycle.

By adding this flex­i­bil­i­ty with a six-axis robot, the man­u­fac­tur­er not only received a ver­sa­tile robot, but they also received a robot that was able to per­form duties faster and with more accu­ra­cy than their human coun­ter­parts, which only improved the qual­i­ty of the fin­ished products.

The auto­mo­tive com­pa­ny worked with KUKA and devised a sys­tem lay­out that opti­mized their glu­ing appli­ca­tion while adding flex­i­bil­i­ty with robot­ic six-axis arms. Not only did they improve their har­mo­niza­tion, but they also were able to refine the appli­ca­tion and reduce the cycle time down to 38 sec­onds, KUKA stated.

Over­all, the man­u­fac­tur­er was able to get a flex­i­ble six-axis robot that will add to their man­u­fac­tur­ing pro­duc­tion now and in the future as their prod­ucts change.

Robots​.com, a cer­ti­fied inte­gra­tor of KUKA Robot­ics mod­els, has sev­er­al KUKA robots avail­able for pur­chase and cus­tomiza­tion. Our high­ly-qual­i­fied staff takes into account the need for accu­ra­cy, repeata­bil­i­ty, speed and flex­i­bil­i­ty when design­ing a sys­tem with a client, so the sys­tem will meet all of the facil­i­ty and appli­ca­tion needs.

For more infor­ma­tion about automat­ing your process­es with Robots​.com, con­tact rep­re­sen­ta­tives online or at 877−762−6881.