Interview with Josep M. Serra, Division Manager Robotics of Stäubli Española
It is already customary to take for granted that in Europe (and Spain) the automation in the plastics industry is already an obligation. This claim, do there is actually in demand for robots of this industry?
Without a doubt, the automation in the plastics industry should help to maintain our competitiveness in costs and quality. It should not think only in downloading the product, but it is thought to add processes around the machine. Taking advantage of the flexibility of anthropomorphic robots (6 degrees of freedom), you can think to add processes that were traditionally done in adjacent ‡reas. Processes of deburring, labelling, montages of inserts, quality control and even painted or bagging may be performed on site, and can position the product of delicate way the pallet or appropriate container.
As a result reduce the time spent, surface and employment in its implementation and what is perhaps more important, improve quality and provide traceability to the process.
Does plenty of room in Spain for the sale of robots in the plastics industry?
Yes, we have to look for the robotic solutions adapted to each client. Not all industries have the same needs, we can not give the same solutions.
In some cases, injection processes and the time of desmoldeado are of notable importance on the injection time; in these cases, any reduction in that time represents a reduction in the time of repayment, and a significant improvement in our productive capacity. To this end, we must seek an appropriate configuration of the anthropomorphic robot to minimize download time.
In other cases, it may be necessary to add Assembly processes, or included being able to use a robot to simultaneously download two machines. With the appropriate studies, improvement solutions can bring to many processes.
There is room to improve the robots? What technical characteristic is your company focusing to make improvements? (speed, accuracy, cost reduction...).
To be widely use will appear new applications that will require new features. Anyway, we can say that our anthropomorphic robots are characterized by their speed, repeatability and ability. If we join their rigidity, we can place inserts with adequate accuracy and then make other processes that require dexterity of the human hand.
With these mechanical characteristics, has worked on developing an electrical interface to facilitate communication with the fuel transfer through standards Eromap 12 / 67 and a software designed to facilitate the use by the client. We must not forget that, in many cases, the amount of different moulds is high and should be given to the customer the right tools so that it can program the robot.
