The Fabricator - November 2013

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November 2013 The FABRICATOR 53 eration occurs in an enclosed cell. On one side is a cabinet for specialized tools, each of which has a chip inside that communicates with the robot controller. As the track-mounted robot is performing the current job, the technician pulls up the program for the next job and sets the tooling into the cabinet, which he can access outside the cell via a sliding door.

Because the chip in each tool communicates with the system, the operator can place the tool anywhere in the cabinet. When the current program finishes, one of the cell’s several robots retrieves tooling from the cabinet for the next job. If the technician places the wrong tool in the cabinet for a job, the system immediately senses it, because the signal from the tool’s ID chip doesn’t match with the tools specified in the upcoming program.

The cell uses a gripper designed to handle a variety of parts, but of course, “it’s nearly impossible to design a gripper that can handle all the parts out there,” Bailey said, adding that between jobs a technician can change out the gripper using a pneumatic quick-release function.

To begin a job, the cell has a separate material-loading articulating arm that stages material and verifies its position. Specifically, it holds the blank over a CCD camera, which feeds the system positioning data, then places the blank in a specific location, where the bending robot picks it up and starts to bend. This stages the material so that the actual bending robot need not spend time aligning blanks.

The bending robot then places the part in an offloading station, which can be one of up to two dozen compartments (depending on part size), allowing for kit-based part flow, and/ or onto a conveyor. The specific offloading arrangement, of course, depends on the application.

During the bending cycle, the bending robot makes some unusual moves, many of which would be impossible or unsafe for a human. For instance, to bend a typical part, an operator holds the workpiece as it travels up during the bend. In these cases, it’s actually more efficient for the robot to hold the part on either side and then to pivot up as the bend progresses. (This works only for small, lightweight parts; larger, heavier parts require a more traditional robot path.)

The robot can make these moves in part because of the robot arm design, and in part because of the unusual press brake. Dubbed the TruBend 7036 Cell Edition, it’s a

36-metric-ton system entailing essentially two 20-in.-wide bending areas with a large gap in the middle. This setup allows the robot to grasp parts on the side and even behind the tooling.

“We custom-designed the robot motions,” Bailey said, “including its travel range and its joints, specifically for the movements you’d need to bend sheet metal parts. The movements are not intended to mirror a human operator, but instead to actually be more efficient.”