03
the solution
RCM has now deployed UR10e cobots in two identical cells where they each tend two dual-spindle CNC lathes in the same cycle, manufacturing a consumer plumbing product. Operators simply load parts on a table and the robots move them from station to station, picking up a raw part, putting it in a pre-fixture to align it correctly, placing it on the first chuck then the second chuck, and finally dropping the completed part onto a conveyor belt to return to the operator. The cobot’s integrated force-torque sensing allows it to search for the correct position on the chucks and self-align. The force-torque sensing also allows the robot to detect and reject parts that are out of shape or parts that don’t load correctly.
Another RCM application has a UR10 cobot picking up metal rings from a lathe tended by a cartesian robot. The UR10 puts the parts in a wash tank to wash off any lubricants, then circulates the parts in front of a blower to dry them before placing the finished product on drums.
“One of the main tangible benefits that we got right away was a consistency of the throughput from those cells,” says Rob Marconi, RCM Industries director of engineering and technology. When operators were manually loading machines, they were often juggling multiple tasks such as checking parts and bringing parts in and out of the cell. That meant that even though they could load the machines fairly quickly, they could also be inconsistent. “With a robot, it’s consistently doing the same motion every time at exactly the same time, so we immediately saw about a 15 percent increase in throughput as soon as we deployed them,” states Marconi.
Easy adjustments with no safety caging
While the robot works, operators can freely enter the cell to adjust the CNC machine or perform other tasks. This ability to deploy without safety fencing after performing an initial risk assessment is a key advantage of cobots over traditional robots. “If the cobot does not load successfully, it’ll issue an error to the operator, in which case the operator can go into the cell, remove the part, and start up the cycle again without having to open up any safety caging and lock and tag-out the cell,” explains Marconi