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UR16e Robot Announced

Orange Vise

Titanium
Joined
Feb 10, 2012
Location
California
No affiliation with Universal Robots.

The 16kg/35lb limit opens up a lot of possibilities for us, and I'm sure a lot of other folks as well.

 
I don't get what the hype is all about. Those robots are whimpy and over priced. I'm glad we bought the fanucmates instead of these. Saved me $10,000 per robot and the fanucmates position to .001"
 
I don't get what the hype is all about. Those robots are whimpy and over priced. I'm glad we bought the fanucmates instead of these. Saved me $10,000 per robot and the fanucmates position to .001"

Pound for pound, they're comparably expensive, but easy to repurpose, facilitated by the lack of fencing requirement and ease of programming.

They're ideal for low volume production that might last a few weeks, before redeploying to run a different job on a different machine.

The newer e-series is supposed to repeat .002".
 
I understand the cost savings for not needing the fencing but, chain link fence is cheap so that's certainly an option. A bunch of chain link fence can be bought for the $10,000 savings.
 
The problem that brings with it is design cost, space, installation cost/time, and usually more oversight from ES&H. The fence is not the problem.

In general if you're buying a Fanuc or ABB robot, you're probably not in the market that cobots are being sold into.
 
The problem that brings with it is design cost, space, installation cost/time, and usually more oversight from ES&H. The fence is not the problem.

In general if you're buying a Fanuc or ABB robot, you're probably not in the market that cobots are being sold into.



Probably right. I'm not in the tinker around and buy expensive things just to buy them position. I'm here to make money and lots of it.

Fanucmate is where it's at. Faster, more accurate, more reliable, and cheaper.
 
Fanucmate (or anything similar) makes no sense in scenarios where you want a robot to do one thing this week and something else next week, possibly in entirely different parts of the plant.

Realistically this is where automation is headed: being able to do more tasks with easier training and with greater flexibility. The current state of cobots definitely has some blind spots there, but lots of people are using them to make money, including in the machining world.
 
I understand the cost savings for not needing the fencing but, chain link fence is cheap so that's certainly an option. A bunch of chain link fence can be bought for the $10,000 savings.

there's a LOT more to robotic cells than just the physical fence itself. it needs to have disconnects if anyone/anything trips the perimeter of the fence etc.
 
yasakwa kinetic is easiest to "program". If that concept went cobot with ability to lift some weight it would be mainstream. Saving all the 25-150 pound parts for us humans is not so fair. Workers are cheap compared to robots tho. If robots could work in heat and cold it would be nice too, our Panasonic we have to give up personal space heater when it is cold, and when over 95 we have to give up a fan. Same with our big robot processing machines, but they work tons of steel an hour, not the little bit of holding a torch up of the panasonic. Fanucs are smooth, but are really temperamental to clean air, can not work long term in plasma booth without body armor, which tears and is just another con$umable. It is why you do not see them in copers.
 
yasakwa kinetic is easiest to "program". If that concept went cobot with ability to lift some weight it would be mainstream. Saving all the 25-150 pound parts for us humans is not so fair. Workers are cheap compared to robots tho. If robots could work in heat and cold it would be nice too, our Panasonic we have to give up personal space heater when it is cold, and when over 95 we have to give up a fan. Same with our big robot processing machines, but they work tons of steel an hour, not the little bit of holding a torch up of the panasonic. Fanucs are smooth, but are really temperamental to clean air, can not work long term in plasma booth without body armor, which tears and is just another con$umable. It is why you do not see them in copers.

I agree.

For CNC machine tending, fanuc is probably the best way to go.
 
i know they're not too difficult to program, in my experience they're more expensive though. maybe you got really good deals?

Fanucmate 200id is cheaper.. hard to believe but it is. We paid $22,000 for the robot, pendant, and control box. Shortly after found several more for $8900 each used. Bought them all.
 
I think that's why you may be missing our point here in regards to cobots: you (your employer/facility/group) feel comfortable both buying and programming a bunch of robots which will be permanently installed in one place. The whole point of a cobot is that someone with little or no experience with automation (or often with manufacturing at all) can set it up for task, then move it somewhere else for another task at basically zero cost. At least for the near future, the tradeoff is going to be flexibility versus efficiency. If the benefits of being able to move it to another job don't exist, you're definitely not going to benefit -- that's where the biggest cost savings is. The other factor is that lots of people in manufacturing work on parts that have wide open tolerances and don't need to position to a thou, and don't have the time/interest to program real robots.
 
Idk man, I still don't see the hype... I own and manage a fairly large aerospace and DOD shop and when we first explored the robot and automation side of things, we found the cobots. After doing about a year of research, fanucmate is where we landed.

We could easily move the fanucmate elsewhere if needed but it seems like most of you folks are using them to tend machines. Sure you move it from time to time but hey so do we.
 
Idk man, I still don't see the hype...

Hype attracts 3rd party development from companies like Robotiq.

UR as a platform with 3rd party hardware and software/apps can significantly increase the capabilities beyond simple pick and place with minimal programming required by the customer.

For the developer, the safety features of collaborative robots is attractive from a liability perspective.
 








 
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