2008-03-04 - ABB has written a new chapter in the book of robot applications.
ABB has written a new chapter in the book of robot applications. While in the past it had been a tedious and time-consuming effort to program a robot for delicate fine-tuning operations, robots can now learn how to best manage such tasks themselves. This innovative approach can reduce overall programming times by up to 80 percent for robots used to grind castings, vastly improving productivity levels.
With ABB’s new Flex Finishing system featuring RobotWare -Machining FC (force control), one of the last real barriers to -productivity improvement in this sector has been lifted.
Achieving fast robot movement while assuring contact stability with the workpiece has long been a challenging task for robot application engineers. ABB pioneered this area several years ago, developing robots that could carry out delicate assembly tasks in the automotive industry [1]. This progress was made possible by using sensors to measure the contact force, and feedback loops to control the force and couple it to the movement of the robot arm. With these force-controlled robots operating on the basis of the S4Cplus robot controller, the assembly time for power trains could be reduced by as much as 75 percent.