International Plastics News for Asia

Robotics in fast-pace operations

The industrial robotics market continues to surge. This market is primarily influenced by factors that focus on raising productivity and reduction in manufacturing costs. The Asia Pacific market remains a major market for industrial robotics due to the industrial trends in the region and the huge amount of investments made by the automotive manufacturing companies in order to go global, according to a report by MarketsandMarkets. Globally, the market for industrial robotics is estimated to reach $40.08 billion by 2020, growing annually by 5.2% from 2014 to 2020.

Some of the leading companies in the production of robots have taken into consideration the demands of fast-paced operations where many of the tasks are delegated to robots.

For instance, RAMPF Dosiertechnik has already succeeded in setting a benchmark in plant technology with its compact, space-saving DC-RS250 robot dispensing cell, which incorporates the KUKA KR Agilus, KUKA’s small robot. The dispensing cell can be used wherever highly automated and interlinked processes are needed, as well as for flexible and partially automated solutions in which a reduced level of automation should be implemented.   The DC-RS250 cell with the KUKA robot for applying one- and two-component systems on two- and three-dimensional components is perfect for lean manufacturing projects and integration in automated production lines.  

The trend of process integration as a path to greater efficiency, safety and quality is well established especially in the automotive sector. The object is no longer simply to integrate process steps upstream or downstream of injection moulding, but also to combine different process technologies with one another. To produce centre console components in PC-ABS, ENGEL demonstrated at the recent Fakuma its ENGEL duo 2550/550 injection moulding machine with integrated ENGEL viper 20 robot combining two technologies: ENGEL foammelt, the MuCell foam injection moulding process developed by Trexel of Wilmington in the USA, and ENGEL variomelt, a variothermal injection moulding process.  To demonstrate the versatility of this amalgamation of processes, the sample part has varying wall thicknesses and surface structures. The mould for the variothermal process demonstration will be supplied by ENGEL's partner Roctool (Le Bourget du Lac, France).

Sepro Robotique brought a total of 14 robots to Fakuma. These robots represent one of the industry’s most complete ranges of automation equipment for plastics injection moulding. Two 6-axis articulated-arm units were shown operating together with three 5-axis Cartesian robots in an entertaining i-Pad relay. The demonstration was designed to point out the similarities and differences between the 5-axis Cartesian configuration and the 6-axis articulated design.  All these different robots are operated using the same easy-to-use control platform, which was developed by Sepro especially for injection-moulding applications.

For more of these developments, read the latest issue of the International Plastics News for Asia.