An unusual robot has recently been commissioned at Microtherm from Noord-Scharwoude. It is a Kawasaki robot loader supplied by RFA Rijlaarsdam Factory Automation and used to load a Hwacheon Hi-Tech 200A lathe. The robot is placed in a special enclosure, which can be easily slid away on a linear guide to give free access to the lathe. In addition, plastic chips generated in the machine are automatically removed.
The robot in question is a 6-axis Kawasaki RS003N robot, placed at a Hwacheon Hi-Tech 200A lathe for producing precision plastic parts. The robot offers a working range of 1,240 mm and a handling capacity of 3 kg. The RS003N is used to automatically insert plastic workpieces into the chuck and remove them after turning.
Sliding enclosure
The available floor space at the Hwacheon Hi-Tech 200A lathe is limited, while the lathe must remain freely accessible. It was therefore chosen to place the Kawasaki robot in a sliding enclosure. "This enclosure is placed on a linear guide, which allows the robot to be easily moved to the side to clear the lathe door for the operator. Thanks to this construction, the robot takes up very little space," explains Rens Rijlaarsdam of RFA. The standard machine door is available, making it possible to use the lathe without the robot for manual production.
Also special about the robot is a function that automatically sucks up the plastic chips that arise. "These plastic chips are often relatively long, awkward chips. If a machine is operated manually, the operator can remove these chips with some regularity. However, if a robot is used for this purpose, these chips can cause problems. The Kawasaki RS003N robot is therefore capable of extracting these chips," says Rijlaarsdam. "For this, the robot uses a vacuum hose, which is held near the cutting plate at set times. This sucks the chips away immediately, so they cannot contaminate the machine."
Easy to program
The robot is programmed and controlled via a tablet, with no programming knowledge required by the operator. This uses the RFA Grid software. "The tablet control makes it insightful and easy for the operator to set things up. The screen shows the machine, the spindle, the robot's gripper and all other adjustable parts schematically and visualised."
Rijlaarsdam: "Everything about the robot is adjustable: the length of the jaws, the length of the claws on the machine, the insertion depth and the dimensions of the product. These dimensions can be entered in millimetres."
Other robot loaders at Microtherm
RFA has been supplying Kawasaki robot loaders to Microtherm for some time. The RS003N robot that has now been delivered is the third robot loader from RFA to be commissioned by the company. The company has been deploying a Kawasaki RS010N for machine loading for some time. This robot can be seen in the video below.
> The Kawasaki RS010N in operation at Microtherm
In addition, a Kawasaki FS006L with RFA-Vision is used to load parts from the RFA-Vision conveyor and long bar material on a Hwacheon Hi-Tech 300 lathe. This robot can be admired in the two videos below.
> The Kawasaki FS006L loads parts from the RFA-Vision conveyor onto Microtherm's Hwacheon Hi-Tech 300 lathe
> The Kawasaki FS006L loads long bar material onto a Hwacheon Hi-Tech 300 lathe from Microtherm
By: Wouter Hoeffnagel
Source: Microtherm
