robotics & automation
cobots maximise return on investment
Cobots hold the promise of increasing the efficiency and quality of human work, bringing greater reliability, consistency and precision to a variety of manufacturing and assembly operations. however, do these potential benefits hold true for all users?
eliminating the need for protective fences, cobots offer space-saving installation alongside people - a key consideration on many brownfield sites where floor space is at a premium. Simple programming and easy system configuration make them easy to deploy and redeploy. And there is the potential to handle not only the simple and repetitive tasks to increase production efficiency, but also the flexibility and adjustability to tackle more specialist tasks. Different industries such as packaging, food
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and beverage, fast moving consumer goods and pharmaceuticals all make stringent demands on automation systems. For cobots, that can mean a requirement for some very specific features. This raises the question, ‘is it always possible to combine the simplicity of programming and set-up that many cobots purport to offer with the requirements for precision that many applications demand?’ It was not unusual for end users to find that
the answer to the questions was ‘no’. This can limit the cobot’s applicability to a narrow range of tasks, potentially also limiting opportunities for redeployment, and ultimately impacting on the return on investment.
ntroduced only relatively recently, collaborative robots (cobots) today represent the fastest growing area of robotics. By
With the MELFA Assista cobots, Mitsubishi
Electric has built on its experience in industrial robots to develop a cobot range that addresses the real world challenges of different applications and sectors. It recognises that simple control and ease of programming must be taken as a given, but without impacting on precision. Mitsubishi Electric has developed a new
hand-guided teaching strategy, where the cobot arm is simply moved to the desired position. Operators then press a single button on the teaching panel on the arm, and the position is added to the robot program. Combining this with an intuitive, touch-enabled, graphical programming tool - RT VisualBox - makes it easier to build sophisticated applications without any programming knowledge.
What about the requirements of different industries? In food and beverage, for example, hygiene is a key consideration. MELFA Assista cobots are constructed with smooth, curved surfaces that are easy to clean and prevent dirt traps, while a food-safe H1 grease is an option on all joints, including the gear. For delicate and precise tasks in
pharmaceutical production, MELFA Assista
cobots offer a repeat accuracy of ±0.03mm, close to that of Mitsubishi Electric’s industrial robots (±0.02mm). They can easily be combined with vision technology, making them ideal for use in applications covering everything from dosing, mixing and counting to dispensing, inspecting and marking medications. This level of accuracy is important in many
assembly applications across different industrial sectors, yet the figure quoted for most cobot designs in the order of ±0.1mm. The higher accuracy of the MELFA Assista robots is already proving useful in many applications, including within the automotive sector. Some end users have also reported that the
12 Autumn 2021 UKManufacturing
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