Integrated Robotics

Integrated robotics are an essential part of today's packaging and assembly lines for such applications as:

• Medical Device Assembly and Packaging
• Diagnostic Test Kit Assembly and Packaging
• Pharmaceutical Packaging
• Food and Confectionary Packaging
• Palletizing/Depalletizing
• Case Packing, Coding, and Labeling
• Precision Machine Loading/Unloading
• Pick and Place Applications
• Product Collation and Dispensing
• Product Orientation
• Product Inspection and Sampling

As a FANUC business partner, ESS Technologies, Inc. specializes in incorporating robotic components into many of the lines we design and build. Robots reduce repetitive motion in packaging lines, freeing up personnel for other tasks. In addition, robots can perform more precise movements than a person allowing designers to build smaller, thinner, and more complex parts. Precise handling comes from PC-based controllers that don't require programming with complex ladder diagrams.

Robotic systems let designers simulate and accurately prove-out robotic lines in a virtual world before cutting metal or connecting wire in the real world. This lowers costs, reduces risks, and shortens lead times because such simulation allows factors such as cycle time, how many robots are needed, and whether a line will fit in a certain tight space to be determined in advance. As a robotics integrator, ESS Technologies, Inc. will help select and install the correct robot as well as design, test, and verify programs to run it. We also design and build the robot's end-of-arm tooling (EOAT) designed to facilitate the product picking or assembly operation.

The end-of-arm-tooling designed and manufactured by ESS Technologies, Inc. may include options such as forced-sensing technology that tells the robot when the product is grasped properly, or when a part is seated.

Other options include a vision-guidance system to check product location, assist in an assembly process, or verify a completed task. Vision systems can be 2D, with one camera, for locating parts placed randomly in a plane, such as on a conveyor. Some FANUC systems use a camera with a laser to put a red X of light on top of the product. The camera finds the cross, calculates how much it is distorted depending on the part orientation, and from that tells the robot where the part is. This is useful in applications in which parts are loosely stacked or randomly located in bins or boxes

One simple example of a robotic system comes from a packaging line in which the robot takes a product from a known location, puts the part in a box, and feeds the box to packaging equipment. To build such a system, ESS Technologies, Inc. engineers first import a 3D IGES model of the product into the RoboGuide software, along with conveyor, feeder, and packaging-equipment drawings. Designers mathematically define the system frames, which tell the robot where it is with respect to the part and the packaging equipment. Programming the robot is then a simple matter of using a teach pendant to show the robot where to move. Users can key in just X and Y locations, or the system can be programmed for more precise instructions, such as moving each robotic joint a certain number of degrees, specifying pitch, yaw, and roll of each part.

For more information or a complete system design proposal, contact ESS Technologies, Inc.

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