Take a look at the new trend in manufacturing called microfactories—where robots rule, a first-ever, ready-to-use 3D printing cabinet, T-skin safety sheathing for cobots and industrial robots, and a do-it-yourself 3D printed cobot for desktop production.
Microfactories: Where robots rule!
Are microfactories the future of manufacturing? There’s a factory automation trend that’s just beginning to take hold that deviates radically from the standard assembly line, especially those in auto plants. Korea’s Hyundai has built such a totally different auto plant for its electric vehicle production (EV) in Singapore.
The Hyundai plant is made up of pods or cells where 60% of the manufacturing of the Ioniq 5 EV is accomplished by robots (see video); the remaining 40% is completed by human workers alone or in partnership with robots.
The net-net when it comes to employees is that it utilizes only 100 workers to produce 30,000 vehicles a year. In pod assemblies, robots rule!
Alpesh Patel, VP of Innovation at Hyundai, thinks that a microfactory’s cell production method could well be standard in a few years. Overall cost reduction to manufacture is 50% less than a traditional or fully custom automated line. This is because modules use 70% of the same components (frame, power, safety, conveyor system). Plus, development and assembly time is typically 50% less than a fully automated custom line.
Microfactories can easily scale up or down according to the complexity of the product.
Ready-to-use 3D printing robot
Market need: Ready-to-use, turn-key system providing an efficient, fast, and safe solution for manufacturing metal 3D printed parts, especially with stainless steel, nickel, and titanium. To meet the need, Spain’s Meltio and US-based One Off Robotics partnered for the production of a self-enclosed 3D printing cabinet.
With a deposition rate of up to 1 kg an hour, this system produces fully dense parts that are mechanically equivalent or superior to those created from traditional means.
The One Off Robotics Cell seamlessly integrates control of the system, allowing the user to easily adjust settings for quick printing. Its 8-axis system simplifies printing of complex geometries and is configured to work with the Meltio Space robotic slicer.
Safety skin stops robots instantly
In 2016, FANUC introduced contact-sensing cobot safety padding which were polyurethane foam pads applied to the exterior of cobot arms. Stopping time in 2016 was 9 milliseconds.
Nearly ten years on, Taiwan-based Touche Solutions (formerly named Mechavision) has recently developed a contact-sensing film of safety material that’s also applied to the exterior of not only cobot arms but also to those of industrial robot arms. Called T-skin, it has a stopping time of 1 millisecond.
The founded claim that T-Skin, was developed based on the ISO standard unit of 10 newtons (1kgf) that triggers emergency stops in response to an external force of 1 kilogram, within 1 millisecond, and is unaffected by either electromagnetic waves or RF.
All of this means that industrial robots can now, with the addition of T-skin, take on jobs formerly meant only for cobots working in and around people.
DIY 3D printed desktop cobot
Roboticist Petar Crnjak is hoping to bring industrial-style robot arms to a wider audience with an open-source 3D-printable six-axis design dubbed the PAROL6 — offering support for an impressive 2.2lbs (1kg) payload.
Depending on ones’ level of expertise, PAROL 6, with access to a 3D printer and online design specs (free), it can be a DIY project; it also comes in kit form; or purchased ready to go straight out of the box for $3.200 (3,000 euros).