Page 48
www.us-tech.com
Partnering August, 2018
Versatile Cobot Handles Multiple Production Cycles for Startup
By Brian Dillman, Area Sales Manager — East, Universal Robots M
iami startup Creating Revo- lutions was rejecting a large percentage of products dur-
ing the assembly of its hospitality service pager. To improve the quality of assembly and boost productivity, the company partnered with Hire- botics to install a Universal Robots UR3 collaborative robot to handle soldering, drilling, silicone dispens- ing, and light assembly. Hirebotics is a Universal Robots-certified system integrator that works like a staffing agency for collaborative robots, also known as “cobots.” Creating Revolutions’ hockey
puck-sized communication disc is de- signed to wirelessly connect guests in a restaurant with their waiter through a smartphone. Assembling the disc is a complex task that requires great ac- curacy and repeatability. “Humans can’t efficiently re- peat a process the exact same way
over and over again,” says Einar Rosenberg, CEO of Creating Revolu- tions. Rosenberg was on the lookout for an automation solution that could meet both quality and quantity re- quirements. The team looked at about 40 dif-
ferent robot companies, and most of them were not easy to program. They required too many things for the en- vironment, were too big or were too jerky. Rosenberg finally settled on the UR3 from Universal Robots. The robot is controlled and monitored by a cloud-connected system, reducing rejects to near zero, while improving production efficiency by almost five times.
Hirebotics offers cobots for rent
that startups can use without any upfront capital expenditures. Hire- botics handles all programming, de- ployment and maintenance, while Creating Revolutions pays only for
the hours it’s operable. “Manufactur- ers know how to hire people, so we wanted to make hiring a robot as easy as hiring a person,” says Matt Bush, cofounder of Hirebotics.
Multiple Production Cycles The UR robot has a built-in
safety system that stops the robot arm if it encounters objects or people in its path. This allows the robot to work side-by-side with people, with- out the fencing that industrial robots usually require. As a startup, Creating Revolu-
tions could not afford an expensive robot. By renting a cobot from Hire- botics, the company is changing the traditional model of purchasing and installing a complex robot with a dedicated technician in-house. The UR3 handles two different
processes. In the first, the robot checks that aluminum housing parts are lined up correctly on a tray, row by row. The robot then picks up the part, places it into a clamp, picks up a silicone injector, and aligns the sil- icone on the inside edge of the hous- ing. Setting down the injector, the UR3 picks and places an acrylic disc on top of the silicone. The other process that the UR3
is programmed for is the drilling and soldering process. The robot picks a disc with a copper base out of a dis- penser and places it into an optical laser sensor that aligns the disc. The robot then places the disk into a hold- er, affixing it by closing two clamps. “The next step is the robot grab-
Manufactured in the U.S.A. since 1966
www.westbond.com
1551 S. Harris Court Anaheim, CA 92806 Tel 714·978·1551
bing a drill from the utility belt, fol- lowed by a sort of peck drilling process, because the acrylic shatters if you just force it. The robot is sensi- tive enough to basically pop it in until it makes a perfect hole,” says Rosenberg. With the drilling complete, the
robot places the drill back into the utility belt and releases one of the
Run with us.
There is no better way to reach the Electronic High Tech and Manufacturing Community than advertising in U.S. Tech.
www.us-tech.com.
clamps, allowing an open area where the soldering iron with an automatic solder feeder can come in. Back at the utility belt, the UR3 grabs the soldering iron and puts three points of pre-soldering on the copper and around the drilled hole. The robot flushes out any debris by puffing a bit of air, unlatches the second clamp, grabs the disc, and places it into another tube with completed parts.
It only took a few weeks from
when Creating Revolutions first got in contact with Hirebotics until the UR3 was ordered, installed and pro- grammed. Modifications to existing programs are also easy. Rosenberg says, “We needed to change from a two-drill process to a one-drill process. Hirebotics sent us the modi- fied software, we put it on a USB and uploaded it to the robot. In an hour or two they finished the code and the same day we were able to totally change how the robot was doing everything.”
Real-Time Insight Hirebotics provides a smart-
phone interface that enables cus- tomers to monitor robot performance and connect with technical support. Performance data is streamed from the robot in real time for quick in- sight into production. Web cameras show what is happening on the pro- duction line, allowing customers, as well as Hirebotics, to monitor activi- ties at all times. In addition to functioning side-
by-side with human workers during the day, the UR3 continues to per- form for hours after workers go home at night, preparing parts for further assembly the next day. “By renting robots by the hour,
and only paying for the hours they actually work, companies of all sizes can afford to automate more of their processes,” says Bush. Having a robot perform several
assembly steps has become a selling point for Creating Revolutions. “When our customers come here and see the UR3, they realize the quality and precision that’s guaranteed, due to the robot. Because we’re not an es- tablished company, they want to feel like the product that they’re going to be using is not going to fail on them,” he says. “The robot demonstrates a strength to them, which then rein-
forces the sale for us.” Contact: Universal Robots USA,
Inc, 101 Pacifica, Suite 350, Irvine, CA 92618 % 949-236-6082 E-mail:
ur.na@
universal-robots.com Web:
www.universal-robots.com r
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84
