Four years after it officially entered the market as the first welding system at FABTECH 2017, Universal Robots (UR) used the same event to again grab attention with its UR cobot-powered systems.
“For 40 years, robotic arc welding evolved incrementally,” said Joe Campbell, Senior Manager of Applications Development and Strategic Marketing at Universal Robots. “Collaborative arc welding is the first disruptive technology to hit the robotic arc welding market since the introduction of DC servo powered robots.”
Campbell attributed the rapid market traction to several key drivers including significant shortage of welders, an increase in high mix/low volume production, and the fact that cobot welders are easy to deploy, quickly producing parts with improved quality and consistency.
Visitors to FABTECH in Chicago were able to see the flagship blue cobots in action at more than 20 booths throughout the show.
“We showed the attendees how easy it is to program a Universal Robot for fabricating applications – and our partners exhibited welding, cutting, grinding, press brake and machine loading solutions and components that exemplify this,” said Campbell, who also hosted several innovative solutions in UR’s own booth, including Hirebotics’ new Cobot Welder, a complete, user-friendly cobot welding system that enables painless automated MIG welding deployments.
Using the ingeniously simple Cobot Welder cellphone application that runs on Hirebotics’ cloud-based Beacon software platform, FABTECH attendees were able to experience hands-on how easy it was to teach new parts and welds.
Heavy-duty welds are now possible to perform with cobots as Vectis Automation becomes the first UR partner in North America to develop a water-cooled cobot-based welding system in a new version of its Cobot Welding Tool, which comes with MultiPass Software Feature and ArcPilot Through-The-Arc Seam Tracking.
The solution is now not only compatible with Miller welding equipment but can be integrated with Lincoln and Fronius welding equipment too.
Vectis Automation also pioneers the use of a UR cobot for hardfacing, the metalworking process where harder or tougher material is applied to a base metal.
The UR also showcased new solutions for automated machine tending, featuring the new VersaBuilt CNC Mill Application Kit for manufacturers seeking a plug-and-play approach to CNC milling automation. Versabuilt’s UR+ Application Kit comes with all components pre-assembled and designed to successfully get the CNC mill and the UR10e cobot working together, automating the loading and unloading of parts into the mill.
The VersaBuilt Kit requires no programming experience with easy-to-use automation software that allows the machinist to simply enter part dimensions and CNC milling program numbers to get the application up and running.
For those looking for flexible, intelligent machine loading solutions for unstructured parts in bins, there is the Universal Robots’ ActiNav; a new system showcased at the UR booth combining intelligent vision and real-time autonomous motion control with e-Series cobots.
Before ActiNav, solutions for unstructured picking and placing of parts into machines were solely focused on the vision aspect, often requiring complex programming to bridge the gap from “pick” to “place” – especially if the “place” is not just dropping into a box but accurately inserting parts into fixtures for further processing.
ActiNav changes all that, combining real-time autonomous motion control, UR cobots, vision and sensor systems in one seamless Application Kit that solves the bin picking challenge in machine tending applications. It can pick metal parts randomly jumbled in bins and correctly insert them into a machine.
