Nearly every visitor we spoke to at recent Demo Day events shared a common complaint: They are short-handed and need immediate help. Deploying collaborative robots for machine tending and inspection can give them immediate relief, letting their machinists concentrate on making parts.
At the NYMAT Machine Tool Corporation open house, visitors saw live demonstrations including:
- Q-Span System for automated gauging in machining operations
- Haas 5-axis milling
- Haas CNC Turning
- Machine tending with Haas and Cobot Systems robots
- Nomura Swiss turning
- Titan EDM drilling
- Helmel Engineering 5-axis CMM automated inspection
- Cosen CNC saws; Midaco pallet machine loading; Phillips Hybrid additive manufacturing; and Clausing and Sharp manual mills, lathes and grinders
- Neff Automation consulting services
Fred Haas, Sales Manager, at NYMAT Demo Days in Fairport NY
At The Robert E. Morris Company Automation Expo, co-sponsored by Universal Robots (UR), visitors saw live demonstrations of machining solutions incorporating UR collaborative robots (cobots). These included:
- New Scale Robotics Q-Span automated gauging system
- 3D Infotech Aruna Vision 3D scanning solutions
- Caron Engineering AutoComp automated tool wear compensation software
- Custom Service Solutions MiJet part cleaner tending
- Flexxbotics CNC interface, redeployment and workcell management
- Mid-Atlantic Machinery press brake tending
- Reliabotics CO2 cleaning & deburring
- Robotiq screwdriving and machine tending kits
- Robot27 dispensing cell
- Vectis welding cell
UR and Vectis employees at the Robert E. Morris Company Automation Expo in Dover, NH
UR and Vectis Automation employees at the Robert E. Morris Company Automation Expo
We were excited to talk with Caron Engineering about their AutoComp Automated Tool Wear Compensation Software. AutoComp is a Windows based software application that eliminates human error by processing measurement data from almost any electronic gauging device. AutoComp reads the part measurement file and automatically calculates and updates tool offsets in the CNC control.
A Q-Span System can be used to perform automated gauging on parts as they come off the CNC machining centers. It can automatically measure multiple dimensions on every part, including outer diameter (OD), inner diameter (ID), thicknesses and widths.
A Q-Span System together with AutoComp Software can keep CNC machines running and parts near the center of their tolerance range, without operator intervention. Perhaps even getting machining operations to full lights-out machine tending.
Stefan Friedrich has been helping manufacturers deploy and use precision micro-mechatronic products and collaborative robots since 2016. He is currently marketing manager for New Scale Robotics and New Scale Technologies.
