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Cutting and Sanding Applications for Collaborative Robots

January 23, 2019

Dynabrade orbital sanders are now fully integrated with UR cobots through the UR+ platform.

Universal Robots (UR), Odense, Denmark, and systems integrator ARC Specialties, Houston, TX, have announced plug-and-play, precision-cutting capability. ARC’s SnapCut technology uses a UR10e collaborative robot to manipulate a Hypertherm cutting torch to various cutting-path positions. Included in the SnapCut software, integrated directly on the UR+ Robots’ teaching pendant, are standard shapes—squares, rectangles, circles or C-channels that can be selected for parametric programming. Once programmed, the operator moves the cutting torch to a few locations on the cutting surface, hits run, and then watches the sparks fly.

“With SnapCut, we have developed a tool that allows metal fabricators to deploy UR+ cobots to cut nonstandard positions on-location with near plasma-table quality,” says John Martin, vice president with ARC Specialties. “We’re providing an easy automation alternative to a process that today is primarily done manually.”

Sanding is another task now addressed by UR+ cobots with the launching of a robotic sander kit by Dynabrade, Clarence, NY. The kit includes pneumatic sanders, robot mount and a solenoid enabling robotic operation via the UR teach pendant. "Many of our customers are interested in mounting our tools on robots,” says Frank Lehman, Dynabrade’s head of engineering, emphasizing the benefit of providing Dynabrade users with a turnkey solution enabling them to mount the sanders on collaborative robots. “Cobots are very affordable and user-friendly, allowing our end users to bring automation into their workplace without the expense and learning curve of traditional robots.”

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See also: Universal Robots