Author: Katja Giorgio

Robots are an indispensable part of the industry and are used in many different areas. The number of required axes, that is, the number of ways in which the system can move varies greatly. Each application has custom requirements which sometimes places high demands on the technology of the ‘robot hand’. Holding and guiding a welding head, for example, has different requirements than the transfer of an entire vehicle body to a conveyor line.

Depending on the application, the robot has different axis configurations, requiring several connection configurations. There is limited space in the installation channel inside the robot arms, precluding the use of prepared heavy-duty plug connectors. This results in custom installations and cutting the prefabricated cables to length. The robot hand must also be individually equipped electrically, pneumatically and hydraulically. This results in installation times of up to four hours.

The solution is intelligent standardisation that covers the most common options. Ready-made cable sets are designed for six axes. A pair of cables for the other servomotor with encoder is added only if there is a seventh axis. For the robot hand, work is carried out in the arm with a cable set with circular plug connectors, which lead into a flange socket of a heavy-duty plug connector. Convenient, flexible and easy to maintain. The flange socket is additionally equipped with a control element for the brake. The throughput time is reduced to 30 minutes. The bottom line: Many variants – one solution!

There are many companies who upgrade trucks with mobile cranes resulting in an enormous number of variations in terms of individual customer requirements. These customers require a wide variety of solutions when it comes to weight class, control type, motion sequence and attachment location. To meet these requirements, the cranes have to be custom designed and manufactured.

The custom equipment increases manufacturing times and storage costs. Every order has to be examined and analysed in detail. The control units must be custom-built, order picking for individual parts has to be conducted, and the wiring must be done according to the wiring diagram. It is only possible to identify installation errors after successful installation of the control system and the peripherals (sensors and actuators). Commissioning of the vehicle is delayed, and the technology team must implement adjustments under ergonomically unfavourable conditions. Installation on the vehicle takes up to six hours, with much of the time taken up with searching for parts and getting oriented.

The large number of variants is analysed with regard to the control properties to find where there are overlaps. This area of overlap is expanded with common equipment options. Additional installation space is taken into account for the requirements of exotic add-ons. A jumper module takes over the wiring tasks. Variants can be consolidated with a pre-installed housing with populated circuit board and connected cable set. Despite minor additional costs for installed-but-unused options, the savings clearly prevail. The pre-installed and pre-tested control modules are in stock and installed within 90 minutes. The commissioning phase is shortened by 120 minutes on average, because there are fewer delays caused by errors.