TechFront New Developments in Manufacturing and Technology Robotic Laser Software Trims Auto Steel L
aser cutting has emerged as the best way to cut and trim hot-stamped steel, the light-weight, high-strength materials increasingly used in the automotive industry to reduce the overall cost and weight of cars while improving both passenger safety and fuel economy. The technology is also increasingly used to cut many hydro-formed, electronic and plastic parts in a variety of industries. Laser cutting is a noncontact process, so the laser equipment does not wear and no trim presses or trim dies are required. The process is highly precise, and trim lines and feature sizes and locations can be easily adjusted to handle a wide variety of parts. Robotic laser-cutting offers several advantages over traditional five-axis laser cutting machines, including up to a 35% lower initial investment, reduced operational costs, and a smaller footprint that allows easier integration into existing manufactur- ing systems.
New from ABB are robotic laser-cutting software tools that are designed to satisfy the need to greatly increase path accuracy and programming flexibility. The two new, seam- lessly integrated laser-cutting software products make laser cutting with ABB robots more accurate, highly flexible, and easier to program and operate.
said Erwin DiMalanta, senior manager, ABB Robotics. “And users can create and test advanced cutting programs offline, in an office environment, maximizing production uptime and resource efficiency.”
RobotWare Cutting software with FlexPendant is a robot controller add-on that features sophisticated tools for the integration of peripheral equipment, robot tuning and calibration, and programming of complex paths.
The RobotStudio Cutting PowerPac is an add-on to RobotStudio, ABB’s 3-D off-line simulation programming tool, which allows operators to generate and modify program cutting paths based on part geometry and CAD models. The second new software, RobotWare Cutting, is a robot controller add-on that features sophisticated tools for the integration of peripheral equipment, robot tuning and calibration, and the programming of complex paths and shapes. “The Cutting PowerPac takes robotic laser cutting to the next level, greatly simplifying the programming of parts of all shapes, even those requiring the most complex paths,”
The Cutting PowerPac supports the optimization of cutting programs, setup of interface signals, and management of cut- ting process data. RobotWare Cutting is compatible with most common laser-cutting equipment brands, and its intuitive graphical user interface makes it easy to use. The interface provides the flexibility to switch automatically and quickly between different product series, allowing even the shortest cutting runs to be efficient and of the highest quality. “RobotWare Cutting also features an advanced Itera- tive Learning Control [ILC] algorithm that allows the robot to essentially learn by doing, where it continually improves its cutting performance and accuracy over time,” said DiMalanta. Users of ABB Robotics’ laser-cutting systems also have all the benefits of ABB’s Remote Service, a system which pro-