Case Study of KUKA Industrial Robot Application of "Four Big Family"

Kuka Robot is currently the most market-leading industry in the automotive industry. In addition, it has a very strong intelligent solution capability in agricultural machinery, elevators, PCs, construction machinery, rail transit and many other fields. Do not believe, Xiao Bian will focus on introducing the intelligent welding solutions of several KUKA robots for you to read.

Case Study of KUKA Industrial Robot Application of "Four Big Family"

At present, in the international robot industry, the brand influence of the four major families is the status of the unshakable, and the possible change is that the order of the four major families has changed. However, the four major robot families are constantly increasing their research and development efforts, improving the level of intelligence and automation of products, and consolidating or expanding their market position. Now Xiaobian will introduce you to one of the hottest robot companies, KUKA.

KUKA robots currently have the most market-leading industry in the automotive industry. In addition, it has a very strong intelligent solution capability in agricultural machinery, elevators, PCs, construction machinery, rail transit and many other fields. Do not believe, Xiao Bian will focus on introducing the intelligent welding solutions of several KUKA robots for you to read.

A variety of welding processes can be integrated to form a compact multi-function unit

Case selection:

The universal unit integrates a KR6-2 KUKA robot in the center of an H-shaped platform, using a rotary platform to keep a welding fixture in operation during the production process, while the second fixture is loaded into the workpiece by the operator. This operator's operation has no effect on the beat. The unit can also be used in other applications: it can be used as a very compact robotic welding unit with a single robot, or it can be used with other robots, which can match different robot welding processes.

First, the operator loads the workpiece onto the welding fixture and starts the system. The slewing platform rotates the fixture 180 degrees below the robot to its weld zone. The KUKAKR6-2 with the Fronius CMT torch is inserted into the fixture to start welding the workpiece. Next, the second robot, model KR210R2700extra, equipped with X100 pneumatic servo robot welding tongs, was also moved to the fixture to weld the workpieces together by spot welding. After the welding is completed, the H-type swivel platform rotates, and the second newly loaded jig is fed into the robot's working space. Rotation of the platform moves the first fixture back into the operator's workspace, which is pneumatically opened and the operator can remove the welded parts. The operator's job of loading/unloading the workpiece does not affect the beat.

The arrangement of the robot on the H-shaped platform increases the accessibility of the robot when performing welding in the work area of ​​the fixture. The KR6-2 KUKA robot mounted on the platform perfectly matches the standard arc welding task with its 6kg low load and 1600mm working radius. The streamlined design of the robot's wrist ensures that the robot has the smallest destructive contour and the highest degree of freedom of movement. This welding expert can therefore easily reach all the welding positions on the workpiece. The KR210R2700extra robot performs spot welding tasks with high precision and speed. Like other KRQUANTEC series robots, it is characterized by extremely low space requirements and a wide range of potential applications. With a payload of 210kg and a reach of 2926mm, it is the best choice for spot welding in general purpose units. In addition, this model of six-axis robot can easily perform handling or machining tasks. Both robots ensure that the robot unit achieves perfect and measurable welding results.

Automotive Manufacturing Innovative Robot Welding System

Applications:

ARK Group is a company that develops and manufactures innovative products in the fields of automotive technology, garden machinery and aerospace. In the automotive industry, the company is mainly engaged in the production of durable AL-KO trailer axles and components for the European market.

In the automotive industry, welds on components are subjected to very high dynamic loads, and the quality of the trailer shaft is particularly important, so the welding of the trailer shaft is one of the most challenging tasks in welding technology. In order to guarantee the ultimate flexibility while guaranteeing the highest component quality, reliable welding processes and state-of-the-art production techniques must be used.

ARKCO relies on two identical welding units from leading system integrator RoboluTIon to produce rocker arms, anti-theft devices and various add-on components for commercial trailer axles. ACE Group's production planner AndreasJehle summed up the reasons for their decision to use the RoboluTIon system and KUKA welding robots: "The production at these stations is mainly in small batches, with batch sizes ranging from 10 to 500 parts, number of variants. Huge. Utilizing RoboluTIon's universal unit with two different dedicated positioners for incredible flexibility, the use of KUKAKR16 ensures excellent quality and productivity – perfect for our company's requirements Customized combination."

In fact, thanks to the 5-axis positioner and an additional dedicated positioner TurnFix connected to the length of the system, the innovative unit achieves an incredibly short non-productive time. “The system intelligently configures the track positioner and TurnFix, which means that the workpiece can be loaded at both stations without interrupting the welding process. With this configuration, the KUKA robot has proven to be always busy. With virtually no production time, KR16 equipment delivers outstanding performance despite the need for continuous loading. These six-axis robots are fast, precise and produce excellent welding results – and these results are used as high quality axle manufacturers. The AGCO Group has a decisive importance," said Andreas Jehle.

AGCO does not store non-productive materials as inventories. The production to be placed will be prepared for the day's order. For both welding units, this means they are always available. If the system does not work for a long time, this will automatically hinder the production of the entire axle, and as a result, there will be no doubt that downtime will occur.

Thomas Büttner, Head of Sales at RoboluTIon, explains how the system is fine-tuned for maximum availability: “The overall system availability must be higher than 98%, multiplying the availability of all components in the system, meaning that it can only be obtained through consistent use on the market. The best product to achieve this goal. There is no doubt that the system concept must also be correct. Because Robolution has many years of experience in the manufacture of robotic welding systems and its consistent use of the best quality components, various users such as Aike The group can reliably obtain the entire system with a reliable process."

In Aike, they can prove this point to the fullest. The updated ones in these two systems have been in operation for less than two years, and despite the large number of multiple shifts, there have never been major incidents during these times.

Currently, there are fewer than 100 different solutions for various part shapes in the system. In most cases, you can switch to another part shape in just 5 minutes. Parts range from small parts to parts up to 800mm in length. The two systems are configured identically, which is also seen by AndreasJehle as a major advantage in daily production: “At any time we can transfer complete welding solutions and fixtures from one system to another, thus providing Additional flexibility. In addition, storage and spare parts are also very convenient to store. If an accident occurs on one system, we can complete the welding of the products in a particularly urgent order on another system at any time lost, but until now So far we don't need to rely on this emergency strategy."

The use of KUKA welding robots in the system is a clear rule of the AGCO Group, and this decision is correct, Thomas Büttner believes: "Robolution is a system integrator and does not marry any robot manufacturer, and KUKA is the world's most One of the good manufacturers of welding robots, which makes the specifications of the manufacturers to us very clear and simple.” Aike Group Quality Assurance Department affirmed the high performance of the welding system.

AGCO is fully satisfied with Robolution's universal unit and KUKA robot. "We are very impressed with the performance and exemplary programming of KUKA robots. Our employees are very familiar with KUKA controllers so far, and I am very grateful for the possibilities offered by this controller. In addition, we think of Robolution and KUKA The service provided is very thoughtful," concludes AndreasJehle.

Highly flexible robotic singles for elevator doors

Case selection:

More than 80,000 elevator doors per year are produced at the Meiller Aufzugtüren plant in Munich, and the size of the door panels is infinitely varied, which means that for production it has to deal with very small batch sizes and unlimited variations of products, given the existence of these factors. It is necessary to develop a production system that can solve the challenges of the requirements without any problems. Factory manager Klaus Schafranietz uses a highly automated system that is not fully automated to complete the production task: “Because we firmly believe that our broad production range will exceed the capabilities of a fully automated system and this will negatively impact reprocessing Time, so we will use the hybrid system directly. The combination of robot-assisted operation and manual operation has proven to be highly effective, producing approximately 1,500 door panels per week."

Undeniably? ——This work item allocation is somewhat uneven. The operator's work is limited to the loading of metal plates and profiles and the clamping of parts. The two KR150R3300primeK industrial robots of KUKA perform all necessary production steps: projection welding, point Welding, handling, stamping, forming and final placement.

When the operator on one side of the displacement platform is busy loading and clamping, the other side has begun its work: in the first step, the two KRQUANTECPRIME robots start the required welding and are mounted on the base for maximum reach and Equipped with a special welding torch No. 1 robot for projection welding, this process provides the decisive advantage of performing two welds at a time: in this way, KRQUANTECPRIME can simultaneously connect the top and bottom of the outer casing to the outer rail.

The No. 2 robot mounted on the base simultaneously spot-welds the open U-shaped guide rail to the bottom surface of the door panel. This process takes less time than the projection welding, so when the No. 1 robot is still welding, the No. 2 robot has already Use St? ubliConnectors' automatic tool change system switches its welding gun to a vacuum mechanical jaw, transforming it into a loading and unloading expert. Once all the projection welds have been completed, the No. 2 robot grabs the door panels and moves them to the stamping station, where each row of holes is punched into the door panel.

Klaus Schhafraniet summed up some of the important factors here: “The lower guide of the door will then be transferred into the punching hole, and the required precision is 2/10mm. The robot that positions the door on the punching machine is responsible for ensuring that this is achieved. One precision. Our KRQUANTECPRIME robots can do this quickly, reliably and with the highest precision – even though the precision required is very high, we have no waste at this workstation.”

After stamping, the robot moves the door panel to the press, which compresses the portion of the metal plate that protrudes at a certain angle to eliminate the possibility of injury. When the door panel is placed on the pallet, the robot's work is finished, and at this stage the door panel can be installed directly without further reworking. This robotic system produces door panels up to 3,500 mm in length and weighing approximately 90 kg. Thanks to its load capacity of up to 150kg and the reach of 3301mm, handling oversized doors is not a problem for KRQUANTECPRIME robots.

“With the new system, we not only achieve the highest flexibility, but also set the benchmark for production quality. KRQUANTECPRIME welding robots and the welding engineering technology used ensure perfect welds and precisely defined energy inputs, and the temperature of the door panels during the welding process It will only rise slightly, and we will almost no longer experience any thermal deformation, deformation or rotational deviation,” concludes Schafranietz.

In response to the infinite changes in production engineering, MeillerAufzugtüren has always used cutting solutions with various parameter settings. When the system is started, the operator only needs to select the material – stainless steel, galvanized steel or hot dip galvanized steel – and the length and width of the door panel. The situation with the robot controller is quite different. KRC4 not only calculates robot movements, including collision monitoring, but also calculates the parameters and position of each spot weld, the number and location of punching operations required, and the position of the fixture, all of which are constant for each door panel. Repeat execution.

The KUKAKRC4 robot is impressive in this task for its advanced performance. This high-performance controller can easily handle a large number of different scenarios as well as a variety of complex control tasks. Therefore, no parameters are stored in the PLC, but the parameters are saved in the robot controller. Siemens PLCs and their WinCC-based visualization systems are only used for data entry, status indication and control of peripherals such as displacement platforms, punches and presses.

In short, this system not only provides impressive flexibility, quality and ease of operation, but also offers excellent economics thanks to the modern robots with KUKA, which is what Klaus Schafranietz is particularly pleased with: “With the new robotic unit, we can achieve a cycle time of 90s for each directly mountable door panel. This is an incredible 300% increase compared to the old gantry system.”

Industrial robot workstation for agricultural machinery

Case selection:

The robotic welding system consists of a workstation with two robotic systems, which are mounted on the C-type gantry strut in an inverted state. The two robotic systems are movable on the ground guidance mechanism and are equipped with two rotary-swivel-lift locators. The clamping diameter, clamping height and length are all 5m. In addition, workpieces with a maximum weight of 4,500 kg can be handled. Tool center point (TCP) calibration is automated to ensure consistently high application quality.

Above each robot is provided a suction flue that returns filtered air to the workshop. At the same time, the system offers the advantage of allowing two robots to cut the same part or separate multiple parts at one station.

Two KUKAKR30L16 robots are especially suitable for medium payloads. With a maximum reach of 3,102 mm and a positioning accuracy of 0.07 mm, these robots are ideal for precision welding applications. Thanks to the longer articulated arm and the longer connecting arm, these robots have a very large working range in order to create more new production possibilities. These robots can be used for ground or roof installations and are ideal for individual system layouts. The use of KUKA.TouchSense software also makes it possible to compensate for deviations in the shape or position of the workpiece, which ensures that the path of motion on the workpiece corresponds exactly to the main contour. KUKA.ArcSense software uses arc crossing sensors for gap tracking.

Implementing this robotic automation solution delivers significant productivity gains: reduced cycle times during soldering and handling, reducing manufacturing time by more than 50%.

End customers and integrators are convinced by robot-based solutions and will not rule out further applications: “We are always in touch with our customers to introduce the optimization and innovation of the systems we offer. We also plan to produce them at Horsch. The possibility of implementing further automated equipment in the process,” adds Kristina Schreider, an employee of SMTSystemtechnik GmbH.

Linear Encoder

Draw-wire sensors of the wire sensor series measure with high linearity across the entire measuring range and are used for distance and position measurements of 100mm up to 20,000mm. Draw-wire sensors from LANDER are ideal for integration and subsequent assembly in serial OEM applications, e.g., in medical devices, lifts, conveyors and automotive engineering.

Linear Encoder,Digital Linear Encoder,Draw Wire Sensor,1500Mm Linear Encoder

Jilin Lander Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd , https://www.jilinlandertech.com

Posted on