Robots designed for plastics work to run at K

At the K Show, Stäubli Robotics will be showcasing its automation range designed for the plastics processing industry. Stäubli says that many of the robots and software tools on display have been developed in close cooperation with plastic processors and machinery manufacturers.

The robots designed for the plastics sector in the group’s TX and RX series are used for unloading parts, full machining of injection moulded parts, in-mould decoration, in-mould labelling and other applications.

The six-axis robots are designed for downstream tasks such as deburring, testing, cutting, gluing, assembling and packaging. The robots are also said to be highly dynamic. When loading and unloading moulding machines, tool-open times can reportedly be kept to a bare minimum. The robots can handle loads up to a maximum of 34kg.

Stäubli has also launched three additional kinematic models, namely the TX340 SH shelf robot, the ultra-fast four-axis TP80 and the RX170 hsm machining robot. The shelf-mounted robot can handle loads of up to 165kg with a reach of 3.7 metres.

The Fast Picker TP80 with over 200 picks per minute is recommended by the group for all rapid pick-and-place applications in the plastics industry. The RX170 hsm processing robot, however, has been designed for the rapid and straightforward machining of plastic materials. The sixth axis of this special robot has been replaced by a milling spindle and, thanks to its reach, relatively large workpieces can be precisely machined. In combination with a traversing axis, machining of plastic parts several metres long is also achievable.

With regards to programming, Stäubli Robotics uses a three-stage approach that is tailored to meet diverse requirements.

Seasoned robotics users program with VAL3. This proprietary Stäubli language is said to be easy to learn and makes programming of robots a more efficient process.

Software developers have developed the ‘VALplast’ application software so that plant operators and system integrators can use the robot without any special knowledge. The user-friendly interface allows fast programming ‘on the basis of predefined building blocks’ according to Stäubli.

In addition, Stäubli offers machine manufacturers the option of operating the robots via the control system of the moulding machine. This is made possible by the ready-to-plug uniVal Drive software solution, a real-time interface for the integration of Scara and six-axis kinematic models under external control.