Top Reasons to Automate Your Foundry with Robotics
Foundry robots excel in harsh environments bringing their power, safety, increased savings, accuracy, and flexibility. Foundry robots have an IP 67 rating and can endure harsh conditions with ease and work without fatigue. They can also handle heavy payloads and reduce the injuries of human workers by taking care of the repetitive and back breaking labor.
Blistering temperatures, metallic dust, and molten materials – any of these factors would contribute to a harsh work environment, and a foundry has all three. However, these factors have also helped to keep foundries on the forward edge of the robotic automation frontier.
Typical foundry work includes pouring melted metals into molds, transferring the molds, breaking the metal parts from their molds, and removing material from the metal parts to make them uniform. Foundry robots excel in each one of these applications.
So, why is robotic automation ideal for foundry use? There are several reasons, but the top five reasons are powerful design, safety, savings, accuracy, and flexibility.
Safety is one of the most important factors in foundry work. A wrong move could mean severe injury or death to a worker. The extreme conditions mentioned above mean that workers deal with continuous threats like burns, heat exhaustion, or respiratory problems from breathing in metallic dust. Robotic foundry systems keep workers safe from these conditions by stepping in and assuming the risk. Foundry robots are required to have an industrial protection rating (IP 67). They can endure the conditions with ease and work without fatigue. Even when the heat is extremely intense, the robot and its end effector can be safeguarded.
Foundry robotic systems are designed to be powerful. Hefty payload capacities and wide work envelopes allow robots to tackle heavy lifting and wide loads, which are common in foundries. This also plays into the safety aspect. By replacing workers with a foundry robot, workers are saved from injuries caused by repetitive movements and strain while lifting heavy objects.
Another great benefit of using robotic automation in foundries is that robots give foundries flexibility. They can handle a wide range of applications- material removal, dispensing, and material handling. Using automatic tool changers, these robotic systems can switch quickly between tasks, which leads to simplified, faster production. Using automatic tool changers, these robotic systems can switch quickly between tasks, which leads to simplified, faster production. The accuracy of foundry robots just further improves the flexibility and cycles during applications. Robotic automaton has top notch repeatability. This is extremely important when it comes to handling molten metal. Every movement is programmed; every point exact. This level of precision is necessary, especially when deburring and other material removal applications.
The last, but definitely not least, top reason to use robotic automation in a foundry is the savings. Incorporating robotic automation in your foundry conserves money and time. With robots, there is less of a chance of dropping or damaging parts, and fewer accidents mean less financial output as well.
Are you interested in incorporating robotic automation into your foundry? Robots.com offers a wide selection of foundry robots from Fanuc, Motoman, ABB, Universal Robots, and KUKA. Call Robots.com today online or 877−762−6881 for more information.
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