“The current trend in industrial robotic design is for process equipment to be fully integrated with the robot,” said Joe Campbell, vice president, ABB Robot Products Group, U.S.
With that in mind, ABB has introduced the Integrated Dress pack (ID) model IRB 2600ID robot, which has a 2 m reach and 8 kg payload. Designed for arc welding, it features a flexible conduit in its upper arm/wrist for routing the cables and hoses, fully integrating the process equipment with the robot. The benefits of this design include 15% shorter cycle times, lower operational costs, and easier programming.
With the internally routed dress pack the movement of the hoses and cables is predictable, allowing the robot to operate at maximum speeds. Plus, the time required to fine-tune programs is reduced by up to 90% because you don’t need to account for swinging cables when simulating robot systems. The program time reduction enables faster transitions from weld to weld. The robot design also reduces the exposure of cables and hoses to weld splatter, reducing replacement costs by 75%. With completely predictable motion the IRB 2600ID is able to work in narrow spaces and around parts of a complex geometry on which the dressing could otherwise catch.
The robot has a small footprint with a swing base radius of 337 mm and a base width of 511 mm. For arc welding, the reduced risk of interference with other robots lets you install 50% more robots for higher output. With the slimmer arm and smaller footprint, the IRB 2600ID can enter very narrow spaces.
ABB Robotics
www.abb.com
::Design World::
Filed Under: Factory automation, Cables + cable management, MECHANICAL POWER TRANSMISSION, Mechatronics