The Industrial Robotic Arm: An Engineering Marvel

Human arms have been putting togeth­er items in fac­to­ries for years. Now, new arms, indus­tri­al robot­ic arms, are work­ing in that same respect, at a faster, more accu­rate rate. Robots also have faster cycle times, no breaks in pro­duc­tion, and pro­duce bet­ter qual­i­ty products.

What is an indus­tri­al robot­ic arm?

In the man­u­fac­tur­ing world, one of the most com­mon robots is the robot­ic arm. This met­al arm, usu­al­ly made up of 4 – 6 joints, can be used for sev­er­al man­u­fac­tur­ing appli­ca­tions, includ­ing weld­ing, mate­r­i­al han­dling, and mate­r­i­al removal.

An indus­tri­al robot arm is a mar­vel of engi­neer­ing in that it reacts sim­i­lar­ly to our own arms. The robot arm close­ly resem­bles a human arm, with a wrist, fore­arm, elbow, and shoul­der. The six-axis robot has six degrees of free­dom, allow­ing it to move six dif­fer­ent ways, unlike the human arm, which has sev­en degrees of freedom.

That is where the sim­i­lar­i­ties end though. Indus­tri­al robot­ic arms move much faster than human arms and, with­out the prop­er safe­ty mea­sures, can be dan­ger­ous. Robot­ic arms usu­al­ly have some form of safe­ty pack­age or sen­sors avail­able to ensure the safe­ty of human workers.

An indus­tri­al robot arm not only increas­es the speed of the man­u­fac­tur­ing process but also the accu­ra­cy and pre­ci­sion. These robot­ic arms cut down on work­er error and labor costs.

How does a robot­ic arm work?

The indus­tri­al robot­ic arm, which is usu­al­ly made of steel or cast iron is built from the base up, end­ing with the wrist and what­ev­er end effec­tor is need­ed to per­form the arm’s cho­sen task. A robot­ic con­troller rotates motors that are attached to each joint. Some of the larg­er arms, used to lift heavy pay­loads, are run by hydraulic and pneu­mat­ic means.

Robot­ic arms in man­u­fac­tur­ing move the end effec­tor from place to place – pick­ing up, putting down, tak­ing off, or weld­ing a part or the entire work­piece. These robot­ic arms can be pro­grammed to do sev­er­al dif­fer­ent jobs or one spe­cif­ic job, depend­ing on the manufacturer’s spec­i­fi­ca­tions and needs.

While these robot­ic arms are used to lift huge items, pal­letize heavy loads, and weld entire vehi­cles togeth­er, they are also used for lit­tle things. The pre­ci­sion of a robot­ic arm can put togeth­er even the tini­est moth­er­board or microchip. These met­al mar­vels will con­tin­ue to oper­ate in man­u­fac­tur­ing for years to come – arms lift­ing and mov­ing progress along until the next light­ning-fast inno­va­tion is introduced.

Get a Robot­ic Arm with Robots​.com

Robots​.com, a cer­ti­fied inte­gra­tor for Fanuc, KUKA, ABB, Uni­ver­sal Robots, and Motoman robot­ic arms, has an entire ware­house full of indus­tri­al robot arms wait­ing for cus­tomiza­tion and inte­gra­tion. Whether you need help with your weld­ing, mate­r­i­al han­dling, or mate­r­i­al removal automa­tion, Robots​.com has the prop­er robot arm or sys­tem for your situation.

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