The Need for Automation
The drive for automating machine tending applications has only increased in the past year, as the pandemic has caused shock-waves across the industry in how we view labor. Many machining centers have entertained the thought of a robotic machine tending solution, however common limitations have always been present such as high payloads and the need to maneuver in tight spaces. In 2018, an answer hit the market.
But first, let's dive into some of the reasons robots are of extreme value in machine tending.
Why Robots?
Relieves machine operators from repetitive and physically demanding work
Eliminates the risk of injuries that are associated with working in close proximity to heavy machinery
Improves speed and process quality
Why Collaborative?
A collaborative robot is a robot that needs no safety cage and that work in the same space as a human. These can be used to tend machines such as CNC, injection molding, press brakes, stamping presses and more
This allows your current employees to be relocated to more valuable tasks, while still tending to the machine as needed without requiring any line downtime
The most popular application of machine tending is having the robot load raw material, the machine then executes its program, the robot takes the finished part out and then loads the machine with another raw part. This process can be done in a loop for an infinite number of times assuming the robot continually receives raw parts and that the machine produces quality parts.
Why Kassow Robots?
Kassow Robots came out of the gates in 2018 with the sole goal of creating a collaborative robot that conquers many of the obstacles that competitive brands face: payload, speed, and maneuvering in tight spaces.
Using a unique 7th axis, Kassow Robot's lineup is able to be deployed in some of the tightest of spaces which are commonly found in machine tending applications.
Additionally, they are able to be set to industrial speeds. This is a feature that is useful when you need increased cycle time, but still might have operators present. When a human approaches the robot in this mode, the robot will be notified and return to its "collaborative" speed which is slower and presents no threat to the human.
With payloads up to 18kg and reaches up to 1800mm, there are very few tasks this cobot is incapable of handling. See the below video for a look at a CNC machine tending example.