Brief Summary:
Robotic systems are replacing a significant portion of the computer numerical control (CNC) machine tool market. Higher efficiency, lower equipment costs, and superior flexibility have made 6-axis robots replace CNC machine tools.
- Robots are poised to take away a significant portion of the CNC machine tool market.
- Emerging technology is making it possible for robot systems to perform many diverse manufacturing processes - such as complex cutting and material removal, grinding, mold creation, surface finishing and drilling and tapping applications - that were previously performed almost exclusively by CNC machines.
- Process-specific expertise about material removal rates, drilling metals and rotation speeds, along with cutting angles and optimized cutting paths, are just a few of the issues that have been solved and encapsulated in these third-party CAD/CAM programs.
- CNC programs follow a standard call RS-274D created by the Electronic Industry Association (EIA) in the early 1960s.
- Robots use the same kind of information to process a part.
- Each robot manufacturer uses its own proprietary programming language; no industry standard exists. This lack of standards is the reason that the robot industry has not enjoyed the same kind of third-party CAD/CAM support as the CNC industry.
- The robot market was too small and fragmented to provide the kind of return on investment needed to make third-party software development efforts worthwhile.
- This CNC machine tool software allows manufacturers to take advantage of the lower overall equipment cost and increased flexibility that six-axis robots can offer as opposed to more expensive CNC machines with only 3- to 5-axes of motion.
- Six-axis robots can perform many of the same tasks more efficiently, with a faster and cleaner process that provides high throughput rates and virtually unlimited flexibility.
- Many applications in the plastics industry require trimming, deburring, drilling and routing of molded parts. Water-jet trimming and cutting of automotive carpets and headliners are other processes that are being done by robots programmed like traditional CNCs. More traditional applications such as robotic trimming, deburring and drilling of air-craft body panels are currently being evaluated.
- For the opportunity to reduce capital equipment expenditures by 50 percent or even more while increasing flexibility over traditional 3- and 5-axis machine tools, many manufacturers will no doubt make the switch from CNC machine tools to 6-axis robots now that software tools have solved the program translation barrier.
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http://www.motoman.com/archive/newsletters/ymcnews/200412.pdf |
