TECHNOLOGY | ROBOTS AND AUTOMATION
Right: Arburg six-axis robots have the same user interface as the All- rounder machine controller
– since the start of the year, the Gestica user interface has been standard
(expensive) external robot experts.) Arburg also offers an optional feature, Dynamic speed control, with which speeds and acceleration of the servo axes in linear Multilift robotic systems can be automatically adapted to the injection moulding cycle outside the mould. The robotic system is ready about one second before the mould-entry operation but does not move any faster or more dynamically than necessary. This significant- ly reduces wear and energy requirements. Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming increas- ingly important in mechanical engineering, not least because of the need to automate injection moulding processes efficiently and flexibly despite ever smaller batch sizes and shorter product life cycles, says Armbruster. “A useful application example of AI is the automatic programming of robotic systems. The idea is that the operator simply enters the starting point and destination, as with a car navigation device, and the system automatically calculates the optimal route.” Engel showed its expanded range of smart assistance systems at the Fakuma 2021 show in Germany last October. The new iQ motion control enables Engel Viper series linear robots to make a safe early start combined with fully automatically optimised track planning. When movements of injection moulding machine and robot are coordinated, cycle times can often be reduced. This is because the robot arm can start moving into the mould area before the mould is completely open. Nothing new here in principle, but the implementation of the concept is becoming more sophisticated.
Individual movement points as well as the speed and acceleration of the entry movement are specified during the teach-in. Whereas in the past, the trajectory of the robot was determined manu- ally, the new iQ motion control reduces this
teach-in to a few clicks, with software doing all the hard work. IQ motion control is now included as a standard feature on all new linear robots in the Engel Viper series. Engel says the efficiency gains are particularly
clear in applications with large mould opening strokes, such as the production of deep housing components, boxes or containers, which require long mould cores. To exploit the potential, Engel has performed tests with a Viper 12 linear robot. With a mould- opening stroke of 490mm and a maximum velocity of the movable mould mounting plate of 1,465 mm/s, an overall cycle time of 15 s was achieved. The robot early start was at mould position 303 mm. A greatly shortened waiting time was found (see bar chart). Waiting time is defined as the time that elapses between the completion of the mould motion and the end of the phase during which the gripper enters into the mould space. With an overall cycle time of 15 s, for an as-
Engel’s iQ motion control operates with optimised motion planning (right). The path is computed as a whole and not generated by approximate positioning of single-axis movements Source: Engel
46 INJECTION WORLD | April 2022
Trials confirm the greatly reduced waiting time with Engel’s iQ motion control and early start Source: Engel
www.injectionworld.com
IMAGE: ARBURG
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
