FANUC America recently unveiled its latest lineup of robot arms, cobots, and motion control systems at Automate 2024 in booth 1250. The trade show is being held May 6-9 at the McCormick Place Convention Center in Chicago, Illinois. Attendance is free.
A3 said this year’s show is the biggest yet, featuring more than 365,000 square feet of exhibit space, over 800 exhibitors, and an expected 30,000 registrants, with learning and networking opportunities. Attendees are able to see the latest in robotics, machine vision, artificial intelligence (AI), and motion control.
“We’re excited to demonstrate our cutting-edge automation solutions at Automate,” said Lou Finazzo, FANUC America VP. “We are committed to helping our customers achieve their production goals, enhance productivity, and overcome labor constraints.”
CRX cobots demonstrated palletizing, kitting, and welding
Attendees got a chance to experience FANUC’s range of CRX cobots and learn how to program them using hand-guided programming or the Tablet TP interface.
A new CRX-25iA food-grade cobot demonstrated collaborative palletizing and depalletizing from an infeed conveyor to two pallets. Designed to operate safely in food processing facilities, the CRX-25iA’s white epoxy coating meets the USDA Incidental Food Contact Requirements. It has an IP67 washdown rating and uses NSF H1 food grade lubricant.
The demonstration featured the new PalletTool 3, which enables operators to create and modify unit loads directly from the Tablet TP with FANUC’s PalletTool Turbo software using the newly updated user interface.
A CRX-10iA food-grade option cobot demonstrated packing meat and cheese gift boxes. Lincoln Electric’s mobile welding cart featured its Power Wave R450 robotic welding platform and a FANUC CRX-10iA. Both robots demonstrated hand-guided and tablet programming.
A CRX-20iA/L used iRVision 3DV to locate and pick parts of different sizes from bins and place them onto a turntable. The table rotated the parts to a FANUC R-2000iD/210FH robot equipped with a Servo Gun that simulated spot welding the parts together. A CRX-5iA cobot assembled small gears using integrated force control.
Put wall, picking, and palletizing demonstrations
FANUC’s Power Motion i Model A Plus (PMi-AP) moved tools to random or user specified locations on a put wall. A CRX-10iA picked and placed items to and from order fulfillment bins from an access point. The PMi-AP offers CNC-style motion control for automated assembly and other applications, integrating through ethernet connection for communication between robots and machines.
The new M-710iD/50M, combined with two iRVision 3DV/1600 machine vision sensors and the FANUC iPC, used the iPC’s AI box detection software to locate boxes within stock carts. The robot arm depalletized boxes from one cart and utilized PalletTool to palletize them on an opposite cart. FANUC said the tall stock carts highlight the advantage provided by the M-710iD/50M’s curved arm, while its AI-driven iPC enables picking in challenging lighting conditions and for boxes that have patterns that are difficult to segment and determine edge locations.
A FANUC LR Mate used an overhead-mounted 3DV/400 iRVision sensor and line tracking with iRPickTool to find, track, and pick candy from moving down a conveyor into a bin. FANUC said the system highlights the vision sensor’s ability to detect the 3D orientation of objects on a noisy background.
SCARA robots inspected, packed, and assembled cheeseburgers
FANUC recently expanded its line of four-axis SCARA robots to include the SR-3iA/U ceiling mount, featuring a full 360-degree work envelope with no dead zones. In addition, FANUC’s SCARA lineup also includes the SR-3iA/C and SR-6iA/C cleanroom variants.
The SR-3iA/U used iRVision 3DV and iRPickTool to pick various parts from a moving circular conveyor, move them to a 2D camera for inspection, then place them onto an outfeed conveyor into the appropriate pass/fail locations.
A FANUC SR-12iA robot with the environmental option packed and unpacked trays of medical vials into a bin, and then picked up and transferred full bins. The SR-12iA robot with the environmental option includes white epoxy coating, bellow covers, anti-rust bolts and seals, and an IP65 rating to withstand dust and liquids.
An LR Mate 200iD/7LC and SR-6iA/C – both cleanroom robots - also assembled cheeseburgers. The LR Mate 200iD series of tabletop industrial robots can be installed upright or inverted. Ten models include clean room and wash proof versions, each with various wrist speeds and reaches.
The SR-6iA/C SCARA features a white epoxy coating and is rated IP54, meaning it is protected against contamination from limited amounts of dust and other particles as well as water spray. The SR-6iA/C can meet ISO Class 2 to ISO Class 5 for cleanroom operation and uses NSF-H1 food-grade grease and anti-rust bolts for food handling applications.
Want to learn more about robots picking, packing and packaging? This article was featured in the October 2024 Robotics 24/7 Special Focus Issue titled “Robots picking and packing with precision.”
Article topics
Email Sign Up
Related Automate News
Related Companies
Related Resources
