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Interface Enables Fast Cobot Deployment for Injection Molding Applications

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April 27, 2020Universal Robots

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Interface Enables Fast Cobot Deployment for Injection Molding Applications

With the Injection Molding Machine Interface (IMMI), the collaborative robots leader has launched a user-friendly and quick solution for plastics manufacturers to integrate Universal Robots with injection molding machines.

Plastics manufacturers are increasingly turning to collaborative robots to tend injection molding machines. With the launch of the new Injection Molding Machine Interface (IMMI), Universal Robots makes the communication between its e-Series cobots and injection molding machines fast and easy. IMMI supports injection molding machines with EUROMAP 67 and SPI AN-146 communication interfaces.

The global market for collaborative robots in the plastics and polymers industry is expected to grow exponentially over the next five years, from $250M in 2020 to $1.5B in 2025. According to BIS Research, 15 percent of all cobot applications in 2020 will be within injection molding, automating tasks such as placing inserts into molds and moving parts through post-mold processes. These are tasks that require high repeatability, complex motions, and demanding angles, making them perfectly suited for the six-axis cobots from Universal Robots (UR). The cobots can be mounted on top or beside an injection molding machine and they can work alongside human operators without safety cages (subject to risk assessment), saving valuable space on the workshop floor.

The IMMI module gets installed into the expansion bay port on the side of the UR cobot’s control box, from the inside of the control box.

Injection molding machines have many inputs and outputs to manage complexities of the molding process. Standardized interfaces allow for ease of integration and exchangeability. With IMMI, we give manufacturers ability to set up, program and control entire application cycle through the UR cobot’s teach pendant. Combine this with positioning flexibility and the additional degrees of freedom found in UR cobots compared to traditional cartesian robots, and you have a very powerful solution

Joe Campbell, Senior manager of applications development at Universal Robots

The IMMI is installed in the UR cobots’ control box in less than ten minutes, providing deep integration with the robot system, including safety functionality, and leveraging the e-Series cobots’ control box expansion port for easy mounting and cable management. An IMMI template for the Universal Robots Polyscope operating system is provided for easy use in the programming tree. IMMI is now available through Universal Robots’ rapidly expanding UR+ platform of products certified to work seamlessly with UR cobots.

2K Trend manufactures high-precision injection molding plastic parts for large automakers. The company had difficulty staffing the task of tending the injection molding machine and instead deployed a UR10 for the job. The cobot now handles the entire cycle, delivering optimized production while also solving the labor shortage issue

Universal Robots

We believe that collaborative robotic technology can be used to benefit all aspects of task-based businesses – no matter what their size.

We believe that the latest collaborative robot technology should be available to all businesses. The nominal investment cost is quickly recovered as our robotic arms have an average payback period of just six months.