Page 34 - MetalForming January 2020

Robotic Press Tending:
Easier Integration
Deciding to bring robots into stamping and related workcell operations? Advancements bring huge reductions in time and money spent planning, installing and programming.
BY LOUIS A. KREN, SENIOR EDITOR
Long the purview of automotive OEMs and Tier Ones, robotic press tending has filtered to lower- tier suppliers not only in automotive, but across sectors including appliance and general industrial. Why? As Toni Roda, global product manager-press automation for ABB (new.abb.com/ robotics) points out, the flexible robots of today better interact with presses and other machinery, offer reliability in harsh environments, and can be designed, integrated, programmed and operated more quickly and at lower cost. We’ll detail all of that, but deciding when and where to incorporate robots for tending presses and workcells
deserves an initial look.
The following cases, according to
Roda, call for consideration of robotic machine tending:
• An existing press line operating in manual mode, with operators loading and unloading presses.
“Switching to automated press tend- ing,” Roda says, “greatly impacts not only productivity, but operator safety as well. When faced with stringent surface requirements, robots can provide gentler handling that protects part finishes.”
• Aging automation on an existing press line.
“Replacing old linear feeders or hard-automation equipment with
robots can deliver more flexibility,” says Roda, “enabling production of more complex parts, or even allowing for production of separate parts—in effect splitting the production line into two separate lines.”
• A new press line.
“Incorporating robots into new a press line represents the best possibility for optimal productivity, as the line layout can be optimized for output,” according to Roda. “Compared to hard automation and linear feeding machines, robots adapt easily to dif- ferent layouts and functionalities, thanks to the technology’s inherent flexibility.”
32 MetalForming/January 2020
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