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Universal Robotics who has used them? will i hate life vs. nachi/abb?

vettedude

Stainless
Joined
Nov 25, 2009
Location
Texas
I have a machine tending application and I am currently expecting a quote from nachi for the application. However, i have recently given more thought to using a universal robotics device. The selling point of universal is no guarding, i really do not want to put up guarding we have NO room.

I like ABB as an option because they are in Houston and i can get training and support in Houston. Nachi has been very supportive and seems interested in our applications.

The application is purely machine tending swap a part in and out of a machine and pick up the finished parts. Thousands of parts in a run, over a few days.

I have no robotics experience, but I am familiar with automation/mechatronics.

I also have read in passing that universal does not have a built in PLC, or I/O. Is this true? How does it talk to the machine without that.
 
We have had UR in to demo their unit.
Very nice, slow.... but no guarding, and the ability to easily move around the shop is a big plus.

From what I recall, there was a teach pendant, and a laptop involved.
I would imagine it would be fairly easy to integrate using dprint function on fanuc, or relays and mcodes on other control types.

Why not have them in for a demo?

Biggest constraint I found was payload and acceleration ability. Your mileage may vary. My experience is going back probably 5 years now...
 
I suggest getting giving Kawasaki a call also. We have quite a few Nachi and they are much more expensive to maintain. Every collaborative robot I've looked at just wouldn't work well for machine tending. The accuracy and rigidity doesn't seem to be there and then there is the speed penalty.
 
vettedude,

I have two UR robots, a UR5 which I use for tending a Haas Mini Mill and a a UR3 that I using for some bench top applications. I think you would be well served to take a good look at them. I have found the UR robots to be highly accurate, the parts loaded by the UR5 have better TIR (in a 5C collet) than I they did when I was hand loading them. Here is a video showing it repeating on an indicator.

Universal Robots - High Repeatability - YouTube

My UR5 loads from a 10x10 parts grid, you teach the corners, tell it the number of parts in each direction and it does the rest, very slick for stacking and pallets. You can also have it apply forces in specified directions, for instance against a fixed jaw and work stop while the work holding is clamping.

We have a small shop (900sq ft) packed with equipment(3 swiss lathes, Haas Mini Mill and a Robodrill) and the lack of required guarding was the selling point for us, but also the fact that the robot is continuously looking at loads on the joints means that it won't smash up your equipment and parts. It bumps into me occasionally while I am working at the machine adjacent to it and it just stops and waits for me to resume it's operation.

You only need the included teach pendant to program it, no laptop. You can plug USB keyboard and mouse in, which aids in the speed of programming, but its not needed. You can speed them up as well, the default speed you see them running at most of the time is about half of what they are capable of, but that might depend on your total payload.

Below are some links to some Instagram videos of my UR5 and UR3:

Instagram

Instagram

Instagram

Instagram

Also, here is a long video of me giving an explanation of the UR interface.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKFYEf_XGG8

Like I said, I bought it for the accuracy and lack of guarding but it really is a very powerful robot that can scale up in complexity as you grow into it. It's really not fair they are in the collaborative robot class with Rethink Robotic's Sawyer and Baxter, which are just goofy and sloppy (based on the videos I've seen...)
 
^ Thats a neat approach, yeah i can see were tony is coming from, all out balls to the wall production it sucks, but for a typical job shop running small - medium runs, yeah its at least as good as a employee saveing all the agro and paper work that involves for a small one man shop.

Ignoring your gripper, whats the price point on one of these roughly?
 
Mid $30k for the UR5.

You nailed the reason we got it, had a part time guy for a few months. The paperwork was more time consuming than just doing the work myself.
 
I was quoted $25k, $35k, and $45k for the UR3, UR5, UR10 respectively. So that matches what I got from the guy at IMTS.

I like them a lot and hope to get a budget approval for implementing these in a couple cells out here. I just want to get some details ironed out to assure confidence that it's the right thing.

There are a lot of "modular" robot cells with traditional arms, nowadays, that makes it even harder to decide.
 
We are running products in the low thousands, cycle times are a few days to get that done, if this could yield em 8 more hours of run time and pay itself off in weeks.
 
Same here vettedude, UR fills this job nicely, not a 24/7 robot, but a great second shift.

I'll often set the robot to run an additional 8 hours around 5pm and have it shut the mill and itself down at the end of the run.
 
vettedude,

I have two UR robots, a UR5 which I use for tending a Haas Mini Mill and a a UR3 that I using for some bench top applications. I think you would be well served to take a good look at them. I have found the UR robots to be highly accurate, the parts loaded by the UR5 have better TIR (in a 5C collet) than I they did when I was hand loading them. Here is a video showing it repeating on an indicator.

Universal Robots - High Repeatability - YouTube

My UR5 loads from a 10x10 parts grid, you teach the corners, tell it the number of parts in each direction and it does the rest, very slick for stacking and pallets. You can also have it apply forces in specified directions, for instance against a fixed jaw and work stop while the work holding is clamping.

We have a small shop (900sq ft) packed with equipment(3 swiss lathes, Haas Mini Mill and a Robodrill) and the lack of required guarding was the selling point for us, but also the fact that the robot is continuously looking at loads on the joints means that it won't smash up your equipment and parts. It bumps into me occasionally while I am working at the machine adjacent to it and it just stops and waits for me to resume it's operation.

You only need the included teach pendant to program it, no laptop. You can plug USB keyboard and mouse in, which aids in the speed of programming, but its not needed. You can speed them up as well, the default speed you see them running at most of the time is about half of what they are capable of, but that might depend on your total payload.

Below are some links to some Instagram videos of my UR5 and UR3:

Instagram

Instagram

Instagram

Instagram

Also, here is a long video of me giving an explanation of the UR interface.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKFYEf_XGG8

Like I said, I bought it for the accuracy and lack of guarding but it really is a very powerful robot that can scale up in complexity as you grow into it. It's really not fair they are in the collaborative robot class with Rethink Robotic's Sawyer and Baxter, which are just goofy and sloppy (based on the videos I've seen...)


That "repeatability" vid looks suspiciously like it's bottoming the indicator out. The indicator is not solid and moves noticeably.
Also - the bot in that vid sounded like Shiite.
Could be just the sound level ???

The vid of the "pick-up-sticks" was pathetic. A Fanuc pick/place bot would have had those all done while that one did a half dozen of them. Everything has it's place eh?

Now - the vid of it loading your A axis looked MUCH better.
Was the first one your own vid?


---------------------------

Think Snow Eh!
Ox
 
The "No Guards" is the biggest seller for me. We have limited space and i dont want to put up guards.

Remember, you can use non-physical barriers such as floor mats and light curtains or an area laser sensor. You want 2 different methods if no physical barrier so you don't have a single-point failure at a life and limb risk point.
 
Now - the vid of it loading your A axis looked MUCH better.
Was the first one your own vid?

No, the first video with the indicator was just something I found on YouTube, never check mine with an indicator.

Most videos out there of integration of UR robots on machine tools are quite embarrassing.
 
What is the general consensus on the coolness factor of flowers?

:confused:


----------------------

Think Snow Eh!
Ox
 
The universal distributor stopped by today with a robot in hand. We messed with it some. I think it will be a good fit for our application. Its not super quick, but it is VERY easy. Also the no guards thing is no joke.
 








 
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