DETROIT-A exorbitance of new robotic systems, imaging systems, software, and accessories were seen and experienced at the International Robots & Vision Show, held at Cobo Center here in May, which was attended by over 15,000 people. The show was sponsored in part by the Robotic Industries Association (RIA) and the Automated Imaging Association (AIA), and was characterized by the theme of Innovate, Automate, and Compete.
The sheer volume and quality of the products displayed by the 150 exhibitors made it clear that the show was designed to help manufacturers sustain growth in a globally competitive environment.
"The robotics industry in North America is now a $1 billion business," commented Donald A. Vincent, executive vice president of the Robotic Industries Association (Ann Arbor, MI). "With 10,000 or more new robot orders annually received by U.S.-based robotics companies, and enormous untapped opportunities still available throughout the world, the robotics industry will be one of the most important global industries of the 21st century."
One of the leaders in the industry, FANUC Robotics North America Inc. (Rochester Hills, MI), has expanded its capabilities with the introduction of four new products: the P-200 painting robot, the ARC Mate 120i welding and cutting robot, the ARC Mate System 2 standard welding package, and the Severe Dust/Liquid Protection Option, which allows robots to operate in harsh industrial environments.
"In today's global economy, companies require high-performance process solutions for manufacturing that are cost-effective, practical, and easy to use," said Eric Mittelstadt, FANUC Robotics' president and CEO, speaking at the show booth. "We will continue to develop products that help manufacturers improve their product value and meet competitive challenges."
At the booth, the company demonstrated the P-200's fascia painting capabilities. Its integrated color changer and fluid control valves close to the applicator provide increased throughput capabilities or spraying time. A second robot, the process-specific ARC Mate 120i, is the third-generation model. With speed enhancements of nearly 40% over the previous model and a 16 kilogram payload increase, the new version allows processing of a variety of parts.
From Motoman Inc. (West Carrollton, OH), comes the SP100 four-axis robot that offers flexibility in high-speed and high-payload palletizing and material handling tasks. Featuring a 360-degree work envelope, the robot services multiple infeed conveyors and/or pallet stations. Its fast axial speeds reduce cycle time and increase production output.
Another of the many Motoman products on display, the SV3 robot, is notable for its light weight (30 kilograms, or 66.2 pounds), and is easily converted to a Class 1 cleanroom robot for use in single wafer and cassette handling, disk substrate and media handling, and flat-panel display applications.
Adept Technology (San Jose, CA) showcased 20 robot models called the AdeptCartesian family. These products are an enhancement to the AdeptModules product line and will fully bridge the gap between AdeptModules and the family of SCARA robots. The Cartesian family is available in a series of scalable work envelopes. Joe Campbell, vice president of marketing, noted that scalability means workspace utilization. "Our integrators and customers told us that they needed a family of Cartesian solutions from Adept, not just one or two models," he said. "Physical space in a workcell, line, or factory is at a premium and they need to buy mechanisms tailored to the application."
In the realm of software, the following companies and products also made their debut at the show:
* OpenControl 4.0 from NemaSoft Inc. (Ann Arbor, MI), a wholly owned subsidiary of Nematron Corp., provides direct machine control for Microsoft Windows NT. It is said to be the first product to combine flowchart programming and Microsoft Visual Basic with the IEC-1131 standard for PLC programming languages.
As the cornerstone of NemaSoft's open architecture software platform for industrial automation, this 32-bit Windows application replaces proprietary PLCs while enabling enterprise access to the plant floor.
* Steeplechase Software Inc. (Ann Arbor, MI) and Robert Bosch Corp., Industrial Electronics Div. (Avon, CT) offer the MP2000, which incorporates the Visual Logic Controller (VLC) PC-based control software from Steeplechase Software. This PC-based solution enables critical manufacturing data to be easily shared with an entire enterprise over corporate networks.
The VLC's flowchart programming is an intuitive language for control, resulting in faster design cycles. Customers can improve productivity with the VLC's integrated diagnostics, easily troubleshooting equipment failures and faults.
* Schneider Automation Inc., Industrial Applications Group (Raleigh, NC), is providing a solution to the large amount of time and effort required to write logic programs for sequential machines. This software solution, called Concept Smart Machine Suite, cuts the amount of logic needed by as much as 60% by eliminating diagnostics programming.
The suite delivers a 30% reduction in the effort needed to build the operator interface. The product also automatically captures and displays production and process analysis information never before available.
In machine vision, the following new products or technology-enhanced products made their debut:
The F200, F300, and F350 machine vision systems from Omron Electronics Inc. (Schaumburg, IL) are now available with CE-marked models that conform to EC directives for export to Europe.
The F350, with real-time, gray-scale image processing, provides in-line inspections up to 3,600/min. Its modular design and eight-camera capability let users develop a system to meet their requirements. A variety of interface options allow users to directly control local I/O and integrate the F350 with other controls or computers for seamless automation and data collection.
Two vision systems for robot guidance are available from CRS Robotics Corp. (Burlington, Ontario, Canada). The Object Recognition and Identification System (ORIS) measures workpiece coordinates and orientation in two dimensions and feeds this information to robots or other automated devices for such applications as palletizing and depalletizing.
The second system, called Car Body Position Measurement System (CAPMES), measures car body positions in six dimensions. This information is passed onto robots, which are used to automate complex tasks such as spray painting, sealing, and assembly.
A vision system, hailed as the first full-scale color vision system designed for the PC, comes from Cognex Corp. (Natick, MA). Called the Checkpoint 900C, the system features a PCI board architecture that accelerates image analysis for color vision applications running on high-speed production lines. In addition to its extensive library of vision soft- ware for solving a range of automated inspection, the model 900C provides a suite of color image analysis tools for verifying, inspecting, and sorting products based on their color. These tools enable the system to recognize subtle differences in parts that would go un-recognized by gray-scale vision systems.
The system can be used in the pharmaceutical industry to inspect blister packs and sort color tablets and capsules; in the automotive industry to verify that color fuses have been inserted in the correct position in fuse blocks; and in the electronics industry to ensure that LEDs, cellular phone keys, and pager buttons are the correct color.
From Imaging Technology Inc. (Bedford, MA) comes the Prophecy 550, a high-speed machine vision system providing inspection speeds exceeding 20,000 parts per min without relying on proprietary processors. Useful for automotive, consumer goods, electronics, packaging, pharmaceutical, and plastics manufacturing applications, the system consists of IC-PCI, a half-slot PCI bus-based frame grabber; Sherlock 32, ITI's 32-bit Windows-based soft-ware application; and Intel Pentium host computer with MMX processor and Windows NT 4.0.
In the area of robotic accessories, Olflex Wire & Cable Inc. (Fairfield, NJ) introduced a flexible motor supply cable for variable frequency drives (VFD) that withstands the severe voltage spikes gen-erated by harmonic dis-tortions. Called the OLFLEX Flexible VFD Cable, this 1,000 volt/3,000 volt peak electrical cable inter-connects variable-frequency motors with an ac variable frequency or dc drive to an ac variable frequency or dc motor.