ENERGY MANAGEMENT FEATURE
Efficiency and sustainability TAKE CENTRE STAGE
The automation industry is working intensively on its own energy transition. Assembly systems, processes, robots and components are being tweaked consistently to be more energy efficient. As Automationmagazine continues to look ahead to June’s AUTOMATICA exhibition in Munich, this is a good opportunity to highlight that the show will be presenting pioneering technologies and the most recent developments for economical and sustainable production
M
anufacturers in robotics are targeting numerous different
measures to optimise the consumption of their machines, even though the electric connected load of robots has already been at a very low level for years. The robot suppliers have to pull out all stops in the struggle to achieve maximum efficiency. The pivotal adjustment points are always the same in this context - lightweight construction as well as drive and control engineering. “Only the consistent further
development in all three areas can result in a completely energy efficient system,” stated Manfred Gundel, managing director of KUKA Roboter. He also pointed out the improvements achieved in the current robot generation KR Quantec. Energy costs can be reduced by up to 36% with these six axis robots compared to the previous model. The decisive facts for this were weight reduction, pioneering control engineering with a newly defined standby mode, and intelligent drive engineering. “We are going to present further improvements in details, thanks to which additional savings potential can be achieved,” Gundel added.
ACHIEVING POTENTIAL The manufacturers do not neglect any possibilities for saving energy in this context. While Stäubli Robotics has its own gear production department to be able to adapt drive engineering optimally to its respective robot series, Fanuc uses a method known from other industries i.e. recuperation. “As the first manufacturer worldwide to do so, Fanuc introduced energy recovery for robots. The energy generated in the individual braking axles is fed back into the overall system,” according to Ralf Winkelmann, sales manager at Fanuc Robotics. In the meantime, other suppliers are also betting on recuperation or working on it. The current state of development of this
technology will be shown at the booths of the respective manufacturers at AUTOMATICA 2014. Yaskawa has proven that innovative
kinematics per se can result in energy savings with the introduction of the seven axis welding robot. The additional axis gives the robot flexibility, which enables increasing robot density in cramped spaces. This results, for example, in reducing the area required in vehicle body production and consequently in decisive energy savings.
END OF ARM TOOLING The potential for efficient robot operation, to which little attention was previously paid, is in the selection of add-on units. Regardless of whether gripper or welding tongs, a take-off into a new dimension in the real sense of the word can start with lightweight construction. Specifically, this is when the required carrying load of the
end of arm tools offered by the corresponding manufacturers.
THE ENERGY BALANCE SHEET The energy costs for robots have a significant effect especially with large six axis robots, for example, as they are used in body assembly lines of vehicle manufacturers. On lines where up to 1,000 machines work, the savings potential using energy efficient robotics can result in six figure euro amounts. The situation is different with systems
Below: energy management will be high on the agenda at AUTOMATICA 2014
that only have a few robots in general industry. While optimisation of reduced energy consumption of robots only plays a subordinate role there, there is great potential in the overall consideration of systems. Dr Michael Wenzel, managing director of Reis Group Holding, knows from experience in numerously implemented projects, “The total energy balance of automation systems is what pays. System integrators are in demand here - to think comprehensively and examine each individual process. For example, significant improvements can be achieved thanks to new production processes and technologies as well as intralogistic solutions with reduced transport and handling expenses.” The use of machine vision alone at
robot can be reduced sufficiently thanks to lightweight power welding tongs, for example, so that the next smaller series can be selected. A robot with a lower carrying load represents lower procurement costs, less required space, less energy consumption and consequently sustainability and productivity. AUTOMATICA 2014 provides the chance here to compare the weight of
/AUTOMATION
the right spot in a process can contribute decisively to sparing use of resources in production. For example, this is the case when faulty parts are detected during camera inspection and removed immediately without them running through the production process to the end. The complexity of the topic shows how important knowledge about the latest components, processes and technologies is in order to ensure sustainable production.
AUTOMATICA
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