NEWS DESK WHAT’S NEW IN MANUFACTURING n FANUC Unveils Co-Bot with Heavier Payload O
SHINO, Japan – FANUC Corp. used its annual open house in April to display the production ver- sion of its collaborative robot—where man and machine work together instead of the robot being fenced off—as the Japanese company moves into the market with a model that can lift more weight.
The CR-35iA starts shipping to customers this summer. As displayed at the FANUC event, the robot lifted and put down a tire. Collaborative robots don’t need to be fenced off, permitting more robots to be installed in the same space. “Traditional hard guarding using fences [for robots] take the cost up and the floor space up,” Schneider said. With a collaborative robot, “costs come down as it works more like a helper. The robot is like an assistant to get a part to an operator…You can plug people or robots on the same line.”
Other companies have introduced collaborative ro-
bots. FANUC is emphasizing its model’s payload. Most collaborative robots have lighter payloads, and are aimed primarily at lightweight assembly applications. For example, the robot line from Universal Robots (Odense, Denmark) ranges from its latest UR3, a 3-kg (6.6-lb) payload robot that is the company’s third gen- eration of co-bots, that was announced at Automate in Chicago, to the earlier models UR5 and UR10, with 5- and 10-kg payloads, respectively. The newest co-bot from Rethink Robotics (Boston)
FANUC’s CR-35iA has a payload of 35 kg (77-lb).
is Sawyer, a 4-kg (8.8-lb) payload robot announced on March 19 that is aimed at light industrial applications. FANUC executives say the CR-35iA’s initial ap- plication will be in vehicle assembly work. A prototype was shown at the 2014 IMTS show in Chicago. “This week is the official introduction,” said Kevin Ostby, vice president of FANUC Robotics. FANUC also showed off a wide range of other
The CR-35iA has a payload of 35 kg (77-lb). The robot stops when its sensors detect contact with an operator or objects within the workcell.
products during the event, including a new “Human Machine Interface” display for FANUC CNCs; “Zero Down Time,” which enables robots to provide advanced diagnostic information
“The robot is like an assistant to get a part to an operator… You can plug people or robots on the same line.”
“It increases the number of applications we can do,” Rick
Schneider, president of FANUC America, said in an interview at the open house, held April 16 at the company’s home complex in Oshino, at the base of Mount Fuji.
and other data and an updated version of the company’s M- 2000iA Super Heavy Payload robot, which can lift up to 2300 kg, up from 1350 kg before. —Bill Koenig, Senior Editor
June 2015 |
AdvancedManufacturing.org 19
Photo courtesy FANUC
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