What’s Industrial Automation?

What’s industrial automation and why it’s so vital to success in at present’s aggressive manufacturing surroundings? On this article we’ll reply that query by exploring among the benefits of business robots whereas offering sensible examples of collaborative robots –a kind of business automation — in motion.

What’s the which means of business automation?

In its broadest sense, ‘industrial automation’ refers back to the {hardware} and software program instruments and related management methods, which can be used to switch or complement human labor in industrial environments. Examples of automation sometimes present in manufacturing environments embody conventional industrial robots, collaborative industrial robots and cellular robotic platforms.

Machines can be utilized to automate particular jobs, however they don’t supply the identical degree of versatility and adaptability as robots. Merely put, robots are extra versatile than machines. Usually outlined as ‘basic objective manipulators that may be programmed and re-programmed to carry out all kinds of duties,’ robots will be deployed on jobs from high quality inspection and meeting to machine tending and palletizing.

Not all industrial robots are the identical, nonetheless. Conventional robots are costly, comparatively static, have a big footprint, require in depth security measures reminiscent of fencing, and programming the robotic often requires an knowledgeable robotic engineer.

Collaborative robots (or ‘cobots’), which first got here on the scene simply over a decade in the past with the launch of Common Robots’ UR5 cobot, supply a distinct paradigm: reasonably priced automation with a small footprint that’s simple to deploy –and redeploy—on a variety of duties. Cobots are additionally extremely cellular –they’ll simply be mounted on a cellular platform or lifted by dolly and moved to a distinct a part of your facility as manufacturing schedules change.

Let’s take a better have a look at the benefits of industrial automation engineering expertise.

Some great benefits of utilizing collaborative robots

We’re going to discover 5 important benefits of collaborative robots: security, flexibility, uniformity, productiveness, and affordability. As you’ll see shortly, these are all key the reason why corporations throughout the globe are relying increasingly on automated manufacturing that leverages the facility of cobots.

Security

Probably the most progressive options of cobots, and a key differentiator between conventional industrial robots and collaborative robots, is that following a security evaluation cobots will be deployed proper beside human employees with out the necessity for particular security fencing. This reduces the general price of automation deployments whereas on the identical time lowering employee accidents brought on by repetitively performing the identical duties, reminiscent of meeting, packaging, sanding and screwdriving. Deploying cobots allows employees to be deployed on extra ergonomic (and better worth) duties, whereas on the identical time eradicating the security dangers related to conventional industrial automation.

Flexibility

Most factories might want to remodel and replace their processes over time. Whether or not on account of elevated manufacturing wants or a shift in how merchandise are made or a change in the kind of product being manufactured, these adjustments are virtually inevitable.

Common Robots’ collaborative robots, will be simply tailored to carry out all kinds of duties, together with meeting, allotting, packaging, sanding, choose and place, welding, screwdriving, high quality inspection and plenty of others. Common Robots cobots are engineered to be simply programmable by most manufacturing worker following completion of a easy on-line course, additional including to the flexibleness of cobot-powered automation options.

Reliability

When people carry out repetitive duties, errors are inevitable as employees can get distracted and fatigued and this can be very troublesome (and unergonomic) for people to carry out the identical bodily process in precisely the identical manner again and again all through a shift. Sadly, even probably the most minuscule of errors can have a big affect on the standard of a product.

Cobots get rid of this drawback as a result of they’ll repeat the identical course of, again and again, with out deviation. There’s no simpler manner to enhance the standard of a product that ensuring it’s constructed precisely to specification at each occasion. Conventional industrial robots supply reliability and consistency too however they’re much dearer and time-consuming to deploy than cobots.

Productiveness

Like their conventional robotic counterparts, cobots can be found 24/7 enabling busy producers to extend manufacturing and, the place obligatory, to beat labor shortages.

For instance, Swiss kitchen producer Franke, which manufactures greater than 10,000 kitchen sinks per yr, deployed a UR5 cobot to assist with the repetitive, low-impact manufacturing process of allotting glue. The deployment enabled Franke to free employees from strenuous, repetitive duties, enhance the operational effectivity of its manufacturing line and cut back materials waste.