John Hart Automation and Robotics is excited to announce the much anticipated arrival of the new Fanuc M3iA robot into Australia. The M3iA has made an international name for itself by being able to handle a variety of tasks including small parts with high speed picking and assembly.

Well known for its dexterity, reach and speed the M3iA is able to easily mimic the movements of a human but at greater speed. The robot wrist moves at speeds of 4,000 degrees per second for the 4 axes model and 2,000 degrees per second for the 6 axes model. All joint and mated components are completely enclosed and sealed to IP67 rating, making the wrist suitable for working in a dust or oil mist environment. As a result the M3iA is applicable to a wide range of industries including food, medical, pharmaceutical and plastic moulding.

The M3iA will be on show at the 2012 National Manufacturing Exhibition taking place at the Sydney Showgrounds from May 8th – 11th, where it will be demonstrating its capabilities throughout the week.

Our Automation Sales team will be on hand to discuss the capabilities of the M3iA and how it can help your organisation.

We look forward to seeing you at the show.

Our thoughts are with the Japanese people during this difficult time, and we wish the country a swift recovery.

We have been in contact with Fanuc Japan, whose headquarters are located at the base of Fuji Mountain in Japan just south of Tokyo. Luckily, Fanuc was unaffected by the earthquake and tsunami.

As such, it is business as usual for Fanuc and John Hart. Please contact us regarding any automation requirements.

The John Hart Automation & Robotics team received a great crowd over the course of the week, with a particularly strong interest in Fanuc’s ‘Genkotsu robots’. Genkotsu or ‘fist’ robots are high speed delta robots that can be implemented in many applications in the food and packaging industry.

These robots are some of the fastest on the market, and the M-3iA has a market leading payload and reach.

The John Hart Automation and Robotics team would like to thank everybody who came down and supported the exhibition and visited our Automation and Robotics stand. If you came past you would have seen our live cell demonstrating the M-10iA and M-20iA robot models, operating with Fanuc’s integrated visual tracking system.

If you missed the exhibition, John Hart automation and robotics will also be exhibiting at Austech 2011. Austech will be running in the month of May from the 24th til the 27th. We look forward to seeing you there.

FANUC has achieved this reliability and functionality with the Integrated Vision iRVision suite installed on its latest R-30iA robot controller.

The R-30iA robot controller can interface with up to 32 cameras through the FANUC supplied multiplexer hardware, these cameras can be mounted remotely or directly on the robot end effecter. The FANUC supplied camera package includes an integrated LED ring light that can be controlled through the robot program.

Particular manufacturing processes require robots to locate and transfer large parts that cannot be accurately located by a single camera view. In order to fit a large part into the view of a single camera the stand-off between the part and camera can be several metres, reducing the resolution (pixels per millimetre) of the image and so the overall accuracy of the system.

FANUC’s multi view integrated vision system increases the accuracy of handling large parts by combining several individual camera images to get one accurate combined offset value, this system allows each camera to view a small section of a large part, thus increasing the resolution accuracy.

The integrated vision system is easily setup through the robot web-server that is accessed through one of the two freely available Ethernet ports on the R-30iA main board, once the vision process has been taught and calibrated the PC is removed and the captured images can be viewed on the large LCD screen of the teach pendant.

Simple menu based commands are used in the robot program to activate the required vision process and apply the resulting combined position offset from both cameras. Robot programmers do not need to run complicated external algorithms in order to get the desired result, and as the vision process is being executed on the robot controller, there are no restrictive communication problems and delays that are commonly experienced with third party vision systems.

FANUC’s iR Vision system is an inexpensive option and adds immense flexibility. The overall cost of your robotic system can be greatly reduced by removing the expensive part fixtures and location devices previously seen as indispensible to a successful robot installation.

There were numerous applications showcasing the capabilities of these compact robots on display, these included the following applications.

High Speed Solar Panel Assembly
Featuring iRVision Visual Line Tracking, this application featured the LRMate 200iC and M-1iA/0.5S robots working together to assembly small solar panels.
The M-1iA/05S robot uses iRVision to track the five solar plates being delivered from the in feed conveyor and picks them individually and places on the outfeed conveyor in an arrangement of five for the LRMate to receive. The LRMate 200iC robot then picks the five plates and places into the solar panel housing using a pneumatic gripper and covers with glass coating. In between this process the LRMate disassembles another completed solar panel to start the cycle again.

Flexible Solar Collector Assembly
The M-3iA/6A uses robot mounted iRVision camera to locate randomly located parts “On the fly” without stopping. It loads one heat-sink part into the assembly fixture and then applies adhesive to the part and mounts the solar collector onto the heat-sink. This cycle is repeated 9 times for full set of assemblies.

Here is a video taken from IMTS 2010 featuring the M1i-A and M-3iA robots as well as the Super Heavy Payload M-2000iA robot handling a cast iron machine tool base. (28MB)

PROBLEM
Much of the work involved the manual handling of 20-30kg bags of building products such as dry mix concrete, grout and tile adhesives. Due to the laborious nature of the work, issues of OH&S, staff retention and lower productivity were a problem for the client. By removing the manual handling requirements, yet still maintaining the flexibility for many different products, the client’s goal was to eliminate those issues, whilst still retaining the existing equipment and achieving a consistent level of production.

SOLUTION
Equipment:

FANUC M-710iC Robot

The bag being filled

The custom built gripper

Palletising the bags

INSTALLATION
Operation of the cell requires the empty bags to be placed into the fixture and empty pallets to be placed in the cradles. The robot picks up the empty bag and opens the mouth on the bag for insertion into the feeder tube. The robot picks up another bag as the first one is filled and then the full bag is removed from the tube and placed on the pallet, while the next bag is filled. This process is repeated until the pallets are full. The system is programmed to deal with different packing arrangements and bag sizes and this can all be selected via the robot controller.

With a 70kg load capacity and 2005mm reach, the compact Fanuc six axis M710iC/70 robots was ideal for this application as it affords the flexibility to increase the weight of the product being handled. As the robot is required to operate continuously and reliably in a dusty environment, the IP67 environmental protection rating was also very important.

John Hart designed and manufactured the custom gripper that was both nimble enough to handle and place the empty bags accurately into the feeder tube but also strong enough to remove a 30kg finished product with ease.

OUTCOMES & BENEFITS

PROBLEM
QMN Manufacturing manufactures a wide range of hydraulic cylinders on a number of Mazak CNC machines. In 2004, Managing Director Charlie Quagliata approached John Hart Automation & Robotics (JHA&R) to talk about how robots could be utilised to improve his manufacturing operations.
With a shortage of local labour and the objective of reducing his manufacture costs, JHA&R sat down and worked with Charlie to identify which operations in his factory could be automated.

SOLUTION
Equipment:

FANUC R-2000iA/165F

Mazak QTN 250-II

The QMN cell in operation

Loading the bar

INSTALLATION
Since these initial discussions QMN has been able to successfully automate many of their operations. Their first project involved a Fanuc R2000iA/165F which automatically loads blank clevis parts into a Mazak lathe. This use of the robot removed any OH&S issues, achieved consistent up time and was able to work longer hours than previously achieved.

After this initial success QMN looked to their welding operations where they were able to implement a Fanuc Arc mate 100i to weld cylinders to end caps. Again this installation proved successful with an increase in process productivity and improved part quality.

Their third project utilised a Fanuc R2000iA/165F robot to load a Mazak machine with lengths of tube which are machined into cylinders. Prior to machining the robot measured the tube length and honed the bore. Again this cell proved very successful by increasing process reliability and part quality.

Currently in progress is QMN’s fourth project which utilises a Fanuc R2000iB/165F robot to handle polished bar which is loaded into a Mazak Quick Turn Nexus 250-II machine. The part is measured prior to loading and as polished bar is being used the robot gripper was fitted with special soft jaws to prevent damage during handling.

OUTCOMES & BENEFITS
All four projects at QMN have been designed and installed by JHA&R and have produced significant improvements in product quality and process productivity.
As we all now compete on the world stage, companies like QMN lead the way by embracing the latest technology to help them achieve greater success.

PROBLEM
To locate, identify and remove castings, each weighing up to 16kg and which are randomly piled within a bin, and place them to an outfeed conveyor within a 22 second cycle time.

SOLUTION
Equipment:

FANUC R-2000iA/165F

Robot with gripper

Close up of the gripper

INSTALLATION
Faced with the challenge of consistently retrieving heavy castings from a bin, 24 hours a day and mindful to avoid the OH&S issues associated with this type of work, JHA&R developed a robotic solution utilising a 3D Vision system to meet the customer’s requirements.

The installation uses 2D camera and 3D laser equipment to identify accessible parts within the bin and then to determine their precise location and orientation. Using a gripper purpose built by JHA&R, the robot then removes the part from the bin. Finally, the vision system checks the part orientation and should the part be the wrong way up for machining, it is inverted prior to leaving the cell.

This is the first application of robotic 3D Vision bin picking in Australia and following the successful introduction of the first cell, two further installations have since been commissioned for the same customer.

OUTCOMES & BENEFITS

Two payload variants of the M-2000iA are available, a 900Kg and 1200Kg version respectively. The 900kg version has a maximum reach of 4.7m with a vertical stroke of 6.7m which can easily replace dedicated lifting gear and hoists.

The M-2000iA/1200 boasts the most powerful robot wrist available, with a software option the maximum payload increases to 1350Kg. With the capacity to transport loads of 1000Kg up to 1055mm from the roll face of the wrist, the Fanuc M-2000iA/1200 is a truly functional one tonne robot.

The M-2000iA robot series expands robotic automation into areas that previously were only deemed possible with heavy dedicated equipment or complex multiple coordinated robot systems. For seriously heavy duty robotic automation applications, the Fanuc M-2000iA is unrivalled on every level.

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