intralogistics
Stäubli’s WFTPF100 Mobile platform: the perfect solution
for linking production processes both physically and digitally
a vision of the future or reality today? E
ver since robots started to become a mainstream part of manufacturing, the concept of fully automated flexible
production has been the ultimate objective for businesses across a wide range of sectors. Moving towards this goal has been an iterative process with ongoing developments in hardware, software and connectivity making it possible to continually enhance the flexibility and capability of automated manufacturing. With the notable exception of the
automotive sector, many early robot installations generally operated as stand- alone systems, performing repetitive tasks on the same parts with little or no links to any other part of the manufacturing process. Now, as Industry 4.0 firmly establishes itself as the template for a more automated future, factories are increasingly digitising their processes and as a result all aspects of the business from manufacturing to warehousing, distribution, and sales, are becoming networked and able to communicate in real time. This allows robots and many other manufacturing technologies to operate with much greater degrees of
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flexibility, connectivity and autonomy making it possible to consider automating manufacturing and assembly processes from beginning to end. The capability of today’s technology to
achieve ‘end-to-end’ automated manufacturing was clearly demonstrated by Stäubli during their recent Robotics Innovation Days. Here the company’s four product families – industrial robots,
Stäubli’s TX2-140 is the new model of the high-performance series TX2 CS9
collaborative robots, mobile robots and Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) operated together to perform final assembly operations on an E-Bike. Stäubli’s Simon Jenkins explains: “Although
shown as par t of our Innovation days, the E-Bike assembly operations are a perfect example of what can actually be achieved today. We have available a powerful and comprehensive range of six axis and SCARA
Summer 2021 UKManufacturing
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