Universal Robots is aggressively spearheading the adoption and implementation by coming up with a new generation model of robots. These advanced robots known as collaborative robots or cobots, are very easy to program and work harmoniously with human workers hence the name collaborative. Unlike traditional robots, which are restricted to a specific working area, cobots are very flexible, easy, and safe to handle and operate.
Here are the most common industries utilizing robotic automation with the aim of boosting efficiency and convenience.
Electronic manufacturing
Lately, the electronics market has experienced huge growth sparked by consumers’ ever-growing demand for the latest products such as smartphones, flat-screen TVs, and computers among other gadgets.
In Germany, for example, Beyer Dynamic is an audio accessories manufacturer which had to increase their productivity so as to meet the demand for their products. The company invested in a UR5 which currently handles the glue spraying tasks in the production of pick-up speakers. The collaboration between the robot arms and the workers increased the company’s production rate by 50%
Industrial Welding
Nowadays most welding companies especially the ones with large production activities, prefer the use of welding robots to achieve high quality results for mass production with minimum human involvement.
Arc-welding robots are common in steel production. Here human operators do the preparatory work while the welding robots handle the parts and perform the welding task.
The welding robots help improve weld consistency and eliminate the risk associated with the activity. Welding involves using intense heat to connect two metals and this is very risky to humans but not for robots.
Palletizing
The process of palletizing products takes place in many industrial manufacturing plants and factories worldwide. This repetitive and often risky task of stacking boxes, parts, packages or even assemblies to a pallet makes companies to look for the most suitable automation means to complete the tasks.
Universal Robots has made it possible for palletizing applications to be efficient, faster and safer through their modern and improved robotic models. The palletizing robot clearly deserves credit for providing the above robotic palletizing solutions, which numerous industries are actively implementing with the aim of increasing their productivity.
Assembly
The assembly robots are useful in industries that are involved in lean manufacturing tasks. The assembly robots minimize waste and decrease the wait and changeover time while increasing consistency in assembly line tasks.
The packaging and palleting robots are of great assistance in the assembly process. They are fast and efficient in picking and packing products as they come off the assembly line. These robots ensure consistent workflow, save time and minimize labor costs that were previously associated with the manual application.
Automotive industry
For years this sector has greatly relied on industrial robots in fact it is this sector, which paved way for other industries to join in, after the great recession. Since quality and a high level of precision are the key attributes associated with the production activities in this sector, robot arm use especially the cobots come in handy.
Tasks done by the cobots are, screw driving, labeling, laser cutting, and engine foundries. They collaborate with the workers to perform repetitive and monotonous jobs where some are dangerous to the health and safety of humans. This frees the personnel to perform other tasks hence maximizing productivity and quality in the automotive sector.
Health care
Medical and pharmaceutical companies are also embracing the use of robotic technology to complete a variety of medical procedures. For instance, the Gentofte Hospital in Denmark has two UR5 robots that are being used to optimize the handling and sorting of blood samples for lab analysis.
The cobots have enabled the hospital’s lab to uphold their response time without additional staff despite an increase of 20% of the blood samples requiring analysis. Nowadays 90% of the results are ready in less than an hour after arrival in the lab.
Conclusion
Clearly, the advancement of robotic technology by Universal Robots is enabling various industries to increase their productivity and profitability after adopting collaborative robots to automate their industrial processes.
