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Special Report:Robotics30 years in robotics page 6

Applications stories page 10

MultiRobot page 53

Virtual technology page 62

The corporate technical journal of the ABB Group

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2 Special Report RoboticsABB Review

Editorial

When in 1974 ABB launched the world’s first fully electri-cal, microprocessor controlled industrial robot it took in-dustrial robotics into a new dimension of speed, accuracyand flexibility. Thirty years later ABB has delivered 115,000robots worldwide, more than any other supplier. This suc-cess story is based on a continuous stream of pioneeringinnovation in robotics that has not yet come to an end.

Robots have not only become stronger, they can also oper-ate over larger working areas and can position parts withsub-millimeter accuracy. This geometrical positioning abili-ty replaces specialized equipment and greatly simplifiesproduction cell design.

Welding is one of the broad application areas of industrialrobots. In order to permit the robot to work with theexperience of a professional welder and with the highestaccuracy, ABB has developed the Virtual Arc software.

The time consuming and expensive task of robot pro-gramming is no issue any more. Robot Studio, anotherintelligent solution from ABB, allows robots to be pro-gramed off-line on a PC.

Often robots also have to perform tasks in coordination.Again, ABB has developed a controller, IRC5, that simulta-neously controls up to four robots or positioning deviceswith a maximum of 36 servo axes. For example, two robotswelding simultaneously on the same workpiece, while thepositioning devices continuously move the servo axes.Thus, the robots reach every required seam position with-out interrupting the welding. The improved path accuracyand better repeatability contribute to a higher quality.

The days that robot grippers were not sensitive and couldnot carry out difficult operations are over. The new ABBrobot force control technology shows the way – robots caneven assembly gearboxes, up to now only possible forexperienced workers.

ABB robots are not only strong but can be very flexible,too. The FlexPicker is a parallel kinematics robot, which

offers a great combination of speed and flexibility. Thanksto picking rates exceeding 120 items per minute productssuch as metal parts, pralines or even pizza can be econom-ically picked and placed.

Building successful robots today is no longer anissue of mechanical design alone. The pro-gramming and the understanding of theprocesses these machines have to performis the key to success. The latest steptowards a better use of robots comesfrom virtual reality. Combining thevisual appearance of an object withthe background information of robothandling allows a very easy, forwardoriented programming. ABB made thefirst test with this technology and theresearchers involved were nominatedas one the world’s 100 young innova-tors by MIT, underlining the innovativespriti underlying ABB’s work.

In this Special issue of ABB Review you canlearn about this innovative power. We hope youshare our enthusiasm about the success of ABBrobots.

Markus BayeganChief Technology OfficerABB Ltd

Intelligent muscles

3Special Report RoboticsABB Review

Thirty years in Robotics is not a very long time but as thisSpecial Issue of ABB Review reveals, significant progresshas been made. The range of innovations and the spectraof applications developed here provide a great overview

and insight into how far the industry has come. It iswith great pride that I read the articles, which

reflect the leading role ABB has held duringthis brief episode – and still holds. In most

cases – and this is equally true for cus-tomers, partners and co-workers – only a thin slice of what we are doing isvisible at one time, but this reportpresents a comprehensive review ofthe current state of affairs.

We, in ABB, have a passion for serv-ing our customers and a convictionthat leading – in many cases unparal-

leled technologies – is required toaddress the issues and challenges our

customer face. This conviction is the veryfoundation of the efforts resulting in the

products, solutions and services you can readabout in this issue.

We take pride in working closely with customers andpartners when developing new technology for the future.Our record shows that we are good innovators - to beinnovative and relentless is not only expected from ourengineers and scientists – it is in our lifeblood. Servingdiscrete manufacturing in its many variations and in a trulyglobal market must be regarded as one of the most com-petitive businesses there is. This collaboration around R&Dis pivotal in securing that tomorrow’s products continue toaddress the needs of our customers every time and all thetime – with the right features, at the right cost and the rightquality. ABB’s 30 years of history in robotics and flexibleautomation is the proof that we are succeeding.

I find that the business responsibilities of today go beyondthe short-term aspects of delivering productivity enhancingsolutions. With responsibility for future generations we

must be concerned with sustainability and environmentalmatters. We have macro-economic currents such as thedevelopment of countries like China and India. In additionwe have big-time changes in consumer patterns such as,for example, the boom in mobile phone usage. It is anintriguing and dynamically changing world.

A core piece of all this is manufacturing. Manufacturingthat consumes less energy with less waste, manufacturingthat follows market demand into new corners of the worldand finally manufacturing of new, usually more compact,versatile and cheaper products.

We are committed to remain at the center of these devel-oping events and are committed to support our customersand partners with technology; packaged into products,services and solutions for flexible manufacturing in achanging world.

I hope you get a flavor of both the breadth and the depthof our expertise. I hope that you contact the author if youfind a topic interesting, and I hope that you test us if youhave a manufacturing challenge. We are tirelessly workingto stay ahead to keep you ahead.Enjoy!

Bo ElissonHead of ABB's Business Area Manufacturing Automation

Foreword

Committed to manufacturing


ABB Special ReportRobotics

Contents

630 years in roboticsThirty years that revolutionized manufacturing.

And there’s more to come!

Customer stories and applications

10Body BuildersStandard modules add flexibility to manufacturing.

13Measures of accuracyDelivering “absolute accuracy” in robot positioning.

16Learning skillsRobots learn to be sensitive as well as powerful.

20Welding sees the lightLaser welding for precision manufacturing.

23Unique and ingeniousSmall batch or single unit production? Robots can do it!

26Virtual Arc®

Simulation software for better welds.

29Mail orderRobots are working at the post office.

31Picking pizza pickerDelicious, crunchy, and packed by robots.

35Shelf lifePowerful, agile, flexible, and at home on a shelf.

37Quick payback for(e)castMaking moulds in a foundry is just the job for an

IRB 7600!

39The die is castDie casting zinc for a precision manufacturer.

41Teach saver – A time saverTeaching robots to clean castings in a foundry.

42More colors, less wasteChanging colors without waste!

46Plastics made perfectMaking automobile parts out of plastic.

50Offline programming, online productivitySimulation-supported programming slashes downtime.


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53

62

MultiRobot

53Team matesPrecise coordination of multiple robots made simple.

57Welding doubleTwo robots weld better than one.

59Multiple robots, single solutionMultiple robots require precise coordination.

Tools

62Robots, virtual and realThe simulated robot that behaves exactly like the real

one.

65Traced to the sourceActionable production information enhances traceability

and quality.

68Painting the future of roboticsAugmented reality will revolutionise the way robots are

programmed.

Thirty years in roboticsBrian Rooks

Productivity enhancing robot basedapplications are omnipresent in dis-crete manufacturing across the world.The advancement during the last 30 years has been significant. Initiallysingle robots were used for relativelysimple and monotonous tasks inhazardous environment. Today multi-robot synchronized configurations are dealing with sophisticated assign-ments in flexible production cells.ABB has been a prime driver in thisrapid development process. Thefollowing article highlights the mile-stones achieved along this excitingjourney.


The first industrial robot appeared in1961 when a Unimate was supplied toGeneral Motors for tending a die cast-ing machine. The Unimate, the brainchild of Joseph Engelberger, the“Father of the Industrial Robot”, washydraulically driven, a technology thatdominated the fledgling industrial ro-bot business for its first decade. Thenin 1974, the Swedish company ASEAdeveloped the IRB 6, the first all-elec-tric industrial robot. This 6 kg capacitydevice was unique, not only in thedrive system but also in its anthropo-morphic configuration and its use of a microprocessor control system. It setnew robot standards in the small foot-print, the speed of movement andpositioning accuracy and gave rise toa number of IRB 6 look-alikes.

Electric drive robots opened up newapplications not possible with hy-draulic machines, in particular arcwelding. However, the first applica-tion outside of ASEA was polishingstainless steel pipe bends for the foodindustry at Swedish company, Mag-nusson. Its first IRB 6 was installed in1974 , with further units deliveredin 1975. These robots ran virtuallynon-stop in a dirty environment forover 25 years. This factory becameone of the first in the world to oper-ate around the clock, seven days aweek, completely unmanned.

Spot welding continued to be the do-main of the hydraulic robot until 1975when ASEA launched the IRB 60, sim-ilar in design to the IRB 6 but with a

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60kg capacity. The first of these wassupplied to Saab in Sweden for spotwelding car bodies . Perhaps the“final nail in the coffin” of the hy-draulic robot spot welder was the IRB 90, launched in 1982, which ASEAdesigned specifically for spot welding.It was a full 6-axis device with inte-grated WAC (water, air, current) sup-plies built into the arm.

Robots for paintingHowever, still in the era of the hy-draulic robot, a significant event tookplace in Norway, which was later toimpact on ASEA’s robot business.Trallfa, a small agricultural engineer-ing company was having difficulty inrecruiting labour to paint its wheel-barrows and sought a solution

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Thirty years in robotics

kinematics with rotary joints move-ments are continued in today’s rangeof ABB robots. What has changedover the 30 years has been the speed,accuracy and space efficiency withlarger working envelopes and morecompact footprints.

ABB’s first major advance in robotmechanics after the IRB 6 was the10kg capacity IRB 2000 launched in1986 . In this second generationdesign, backlash-free gearboxes re-placed ballscrew drives for the “hip”and “shoulder” axes, resulting in betterspatial kinematics. But, the other sig-nificant change was the switch fromDC to AC drive motors. AC motorsdeliver higher torques, are physicallysmaller than DC motors, are brushlessand consequently easier to maintainand have a longer life.

Flexibility and adaptability are featuresconstantly called for by industrial robotusers, and in 1991 ABB met these de-mands head-on with the heavy duty(150kg capacity) IRB 6000 . Aimedprimarily at spot welding and largecomponent handling, the IRB 6000 wasbuilt on a modular concept with arange of base, arm and wrist modulesso that it could be optimised for everyuser’s needs. The IRB 6000 was alsohighly cost competitive through its“lean design” with 60 % fewer partsthan the IRB 90. It was ABB’s mostsuccessful spot welding robot withmany large multi-robot orders fromleading car manufacturers.

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High-speed robotsWhile the anthropomorphic arm hasdominated the scene for the past 30 years there are some high-speedsmall part assembly and product pick-ing applications where the design islimited and other configurations haveemerged.

One of the most successful designs was the SCARA (Selective ComplianceAssembly Robot ARM), developed byProfessor Hiroshi Makino at YamanashiUniversity and launched commerciallyby several Japanese robot manufactur-ers in 1981. ABB introduced its ownSCARA, the IRB 300 in 1987.

In 1984 ABB developed what was be-lieved to be the world’s fastest assem-bly robot, the IRB 1000, which had a

through automation, a challenge takenup by a young engineer, Ole Molaug.In 1966 he developed the world’s firstpainting robot driven by hydraulics, ofwhich an early version is shown in .It differed from the Unimate in that ithad continuous path control and pro-grams were created by recording thespray patterns of a skilled painter on-to magnetic tape.

Initially, this automatic painter wasused solely internally but such was itssuccess that Trallfa decided to marketit outside the company. Its first sale ofthe Trallfa TR-2000 was in 1969 toSwedish company, Gustavsberg forenamelling sanitary wear such as bathtubs and shower trays.

In 1985 Trallfa was acquired by ASEAand soon afterwards developmentstarted on an electric drive paintingrobot, culminating in the release ofABB’s first electric drive paint robot,the TR-5000, in 1988 – the year ASEAmerged with the Swiss company,Brown Boveri to form ABB. Prior tothis development, hydraulic driveswere exclusively used for painting ro-bots due to their intrinsic safety. TheTR-5000, however, saw intrinsic safetyachieved with electric drives and theirinherent benefits of speed, accuracyand electronic controls were broughtto the painting process.

Evolution of robot mechanicsSuch was the elegance of the IRB 6design that its basic anthropomorphic

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In 1974 Magnusson AB became ASEA’s first external robot customer.Manager Leif Jönsson together with Lennart Benz of ASEA monitor the installation.

1 The SAAB Model 99 of 1975 was an early spot welding application.

2

Early version of the Trallfa paint robot from 1969.

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“pendulum” configuration with thearm suspended from a pivot. Thearm’s moving masses were concentrat-ed at the pivot, minimising the mo-ments of inertia and resulting in accel-erations of 2g within a working enve-lope much larger than possible with aSCARA.

But even these robots were not fastenough for on-line picking operationsin such as the electronics and foodindustries. To meet such demand ABBintroduced the IRB 340 FlexPicker ro-bot in 1998. Based on the Delta robotconceived by Professor RaymondClavel at EPFL in Switzerland, theFlexPicker is capable of 10g accelera-tion and 2 picks per second, matchinghuman operators in both speed andversatility when handling small itemssuch as electronic components tochocolates .

Advances in control systemsWhile mainstream robot kinematicshas continued on an evolutionarypath, the control systems, operator(HMI) interfaces and software havechanged beyond all recognition. Thecontrol system for the IRB 6 in 1974,later designated the S1 and very ad-vanced for its time, had a single 8-bitIntel 8008 microprocessor, an HMIwith a 4-digit LED readout and 12punch buttons, and rudimentary soft-ware for axis interpolation and move-ment control. It needed specialistknowledge to program and operate.

The first “breakthrough” in set-up andprogramming came with the S2 intro-duced in 1981. Based on two Motoro-la 68000 microprocessors, the S2’sHMI or “teach pendant” incorporateda joystick for intuitive jogging and po-sitioning of the robot axes. Also intro-duced were the concept of the TCP(Tool Centre Point) and a new pro-gramming language, ARLA (ASEA Pro-gramming Robot Language). Thesefeatures made programming and set-up easier and quicker for both experi-enced and untrained robot users.

Other new software for S2 included,limited process software such as arcwelding functions and “built-in” weldtimers for spot welding, and a kine-matic model of the robot arm. Thelatter enabled the IRB 6000 to gain alevel of performance not limited bythe physical stiffness of the physicalstructure, and was ABB’s first stepalong the road to the complete dy-

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namic and kinematic modelling avail-able in today’s products.

The S4 controller wasdesigned to improve twoareas of critical impor-tance to the user; theman-machine interfaceand the robot’s technicalperformance.

The S3 control unit introduced during1986 differed from the S2 mainly in itsswitch to AC drives such as for theIRB 2000 series. The next big changecame with the S4, launched in 1992and which many in ABB regarded asbig an advance as the introduction ofthe IRB 6 and S1. Over 150 man-yearswent into developing the multi-micro-processor S4, which could control sixexternal axes, all welding parametersas well as the robot’s own six axes.

The S4 controller was designed to im-prove two areas of critical importanceto the user; the man-machine interfaceand the robot’s technical performance.A vital key to the former was the“Windows” style teach pendant. It wasthe same familiar environment as usedin PCs with drop down menus and di-alogue boxes, so that set-up and oper-ation of the robot was made simpler.At the same time programming wasmade easier through a new open mul-ti-level programming language, RAPIDwith the flexibility to develop or

adapt functions to meet each user’sspecific needs.

Dynamic modellingThe concept employed by ABB to im-prove robot performance with S4 was“Motion Control” using smart softwarefunctions rather than purely increasingmechanical performance. The founda-tion of this motion control is a com-plete dynamic model of the robotheld in S4 and is the basis of Quick-Move, a function in which the maxi-mum acceleration in any move is deter-mined and used on at least one axisso that the end position is reached inthe shortest time. As a result, cycletime is minimised and not dependentpurely on axis speeds.

Another feature emanating from dy-namic modelling is minimal deviationfrom the programmed path, which isapplied in TrueMove. This functionensures the motion path followed isthe same whatever the speed andobviates the need for “path tuning”when speed parameters are adjustedon-line.

With the dawn of the new millenni-um, robot productivity and communi-cation needs were becoming evermore vital to lean production. ABB’sanswer to these demands was theS4Cplus controller, first seen in 2000,which featured new computing hard-ware to deliver superior robot per-formance and enhanced communica-tions capabilities. For the first timeABB adopted a standard PC format

IRB 2000 arc-welding, AC-powered robotwas born out of an egg at a show in Brussels in 1986.

4 IRB 6000 with its modular design conceptwas introduced in 1991 and became ABB’smost successful spot-welding robot.

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with a PCI bus and a Pentium MMXprocessor at the heart of the maincontrol computer. It proved capableof controlling the fastest robots on themarket including the FlexPicker.

Coordinated multi-robot controlA further dramatic advance in robotcontrol was made by ABB in 2004when it launched the fifth generationIRC5 control system. An outstandingfeature of IRC5 is its ability to simulta-neously control up to four ABB robotsplus work positioners or other servodevices – a total of 36 axes – in fullycoordinated operation through a newfunction: MultiMove.

Controlling up to four robots from asingle controller minimizes installationcosts and brings quality and produc-tivity benefits. It also opens up com-pletely new application possibilities,such as two arc welding robots work-ing in tandem on the same workpiecedeliver even heat input and eliminatedistortion due to shrinkage on cool-ing; several robots in concert handlinga single flimsy workpiece to preventbending; and two or more robots lift-ing a load larger than the capacity ofthe one robot.

In seeking a lean solution for robotcontrol, ABB developed a modularconcept for IRC5 , in which func-tions are logically split into control,robot axis drives and process mod-ules, each housed in identical stan-dard “footprint” cabinets. IRC5 con-trollers may be stacked, placed along-

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side each other or distributed up to75m apart. Installation is made evensimpler by the two-cable link betweenmodules, one carrying safety and theother Ethernet communications. Themodular arrangement also means thesystem may be cost-effectively speci-fied to match the customer’s imme-diate exact needs, while still readilyexpandable to meet future demands.

Controlling up to fourrobots from a singlecontroller minimizesinstallation costs andbrings quality andproductivity benefits.

Intelligent operator interfaceAlthough complex, setting up andoperating a multi-robot cell with fullycoordinated motions was made easierfor a user by FlexPendant, the world’sfirst open robot operator interfaceunit, developed for IRC5. The joystickis retained, not just for jogging eachrobot but also to manipulate all fourrobots as a single entity in synchro-nism, a feature unique to ABB.

FlexPendant has its own computingpower with an open system PC archi-tecture. It set new standards in ease-of-use and flexibility of operation witha full colour “touch” screen, on whichWindows-style menu-driven pages aredisplayed. Pages with familiar iconsand graphics are available for differ-

ent user levels, and new ones may becreated to suit a user’s needs and ap-plications. FlexPendant simplifies allaspects of robot cell operation fromset-up and program loading throughprocess development and cell opera-tion to reporting and servicing.

Virtual robot technologyIn 1994 when ABB brought out the S4controller, it also introduced “VirtualRobot Technology”, a unique conceptin which simulation of a robot systemon a PC utilizes exactly the same codeto that which drives the real physicalrobot. In 2004, the second generationVirtual Robot Technology was launchedalongside the IRC5. In this, even morebehaviour patterns are simulated in-cluding all aspects of the productionprocess and connected PLCs. This waytotal transparency between the virtualcontroller and the real IRC5 controlleris achieved. Consequently, programsdeveloped off-line are very accurateand run “first time every time” helpingto reduce lead times and set-up costs.

Over the past 30 years industrial ro-botics has advanced beyond all recog-nition. Having created the first all-electric microprocessor controlledrobot in 1974, ABB has continued itspioneering developments, culminatingin the IRC5 multi-robot modular con-trol system in 2004. In the intervening30 years, positioning accuracies haveimproved from 1mm to 10 microns,user interfaces from a 4-digit LEDread-out to a full Windows touchscreen display and computing powerfrom 8kB to 20 GB or more. At thesame time reliability has increased to 80,000 hours MTBF (Mean TimeBetween Failures) in some applica-tions and costs have plummeted sothat today, the robot price is less inactual terms than it was 30 years ago.The world of the industrial robot iswell past its early dawn.

For more information see www.abb.com/robotics

Brian Rooks

Freelance journalist

Bedford, UK

The FlexPicker in action.6 The modular controller IRC5 has the capability to control multi-robotapplications.

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Body buildersRobot-based standardized manufacturing modules foreasier and faster installation of new production assetsBernard Negre, Marie-Pierre Picard

Robot participation in the manufac-turing world is at its most visible inthe automotive industry. Robots makethe entire process look very simpleas, with unerring accuracy, theyrepeat the same procedures over and over again.

Behind the simplest lift and placemovement, however, lies a remark-able amount of technology. And thecomplexity of the tasks continues togrow as the market demands shortercycle times, more cost efficiency, andincreased reliability and flexibility.Besides all this, technical evolutionand innovation are forcing manufac-turers to rethink the way robots areemployed.


The rapid evolution of products andmarkets requires manufacturers to bevery agile. However, it also presentsthem with a dilemma: how to intro-duce more flexibility into productionfacilities without having to investheavily in extra plant and equipment?

For many years, the automobile indus-try was restricted by the inflexibility ofthe frames used to build cars. Each carmodel required a massive steel con-struction to hold the car parts firmly inplace during assembly. Today, robotsare strong enough to hold the parts inplace while a spot-welding robot ap-plies many dozens of spot welds tokeep the parts solidly together beforethe car is passed on to a further stationwhere thousands of fine welds are per-formed. Robots have not only becomestronger, they can also operate overlarger working areas and can positionparts with sub-millimeter accuracy. Thisgeometrical positioning ability replacesspecialized equipment and greatly sim-plifies production cell design.

Tooling has also improved. Assemblylines equipped only with welding,material handling or servo tool-weld-ing robots provide an ideal basis forstandardization. Lightweight tools andclever tool changers have also madetheir mark.

Years of technological developmentshave enabled ABB to produce solu-tions that simplify and standardizemany of the different car developmentand manufacturing processes. Thesesolutions, designed as “Plug and Pro-duce” standardized manufacturingmodules are based on the extensiveuse of robots.


Body Builders

Standard Manufacturing ModulesABB is a leading supplier of equip-ment for the entire automobile pro-duction line, including the so-calledbody-in-white stage. This latter term is used to describe a “raw” car body,assembled in the “body shop”, beforeit has been treated or painted. Thestrongly competitive body-in-whitemarket has experienced significantchanges including:

Life cycle cost reduction.Shorter lead times between designand production.Increased uptime.Increased flexibility.High quality.Simultaneous production start-up of the same model in differentlocations.Simultaneous engineering – newways to analyze and handle data.More product customization. Reusability of installations (carryover process) for future vehicles.

These changes have resulted in pres-sure for processes to be fully stan-dardized and for installations to besignificantly less complex. It is simplyno longer acceptable to develop newproduction lines that are capital-inten-sive, inflexible and with customizedautomation solutions.

For this reason, ABB has producedsolutions that simplify, standardizeand optimize body-in-white installa-tions across a wide range of assemblyline types, such as framing systems,main subassembly and closure lines.

Elements of standardizationAs demand grew for body-in-whiteequipment to be provided with higherreliability and flexibility in a shortertime, ABB began to develop manufac-turing solutions based on robots

which can address all the differentareas of the body shop. A range ofmodular basic products has beencentral to ABB’s drive to standardizemany different car manufacturingprocesses. These exploit many tech-nology evolutions, such as high pay-load robots, modular concepts forgrippers, and a simplified HumanMachine Interface, and are put togeth-er to form mini “assembly zones”. Thesetup is simplified by extensive use ofgeometrical grippers (movable tool-ing), which enables the robot to bothhandle and position parts by itselfinstead of having to use dedicatedmachines or equipment. Four basicABB systems can be used to providecomplete Standard ManufacturingModules for body shops:

FlexiCellFlexFramerRobotic roller hemming cellRobot Based Measurement System

FlexiCellFlexiCell is a range of modular Spot-Welding cells for preparing body com-ponents and subassemblies . Builtfrom standardized components, thesecells can be used independently or in combination with other cells toequip assembly lines and preparationislands. They are composed of thefollowing basic subsystems:

Robot.Operator loading station. Robot grippers.Process units (welding, gluing etc).Standard controls and MMI (man-machine interface).Operator safety system.Cell supervision software.

Batch production is possible thanks toquick-change tools, and up to four ro-bots can work in one unit performingas many as 4000 welds per hour. Each

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cell is managed by an MMI equippedPLC. Each cell can be configured as aseparate safety zone.

FlexFramerMain assembly lines, constructing, say,complete cars, and which require geo-metrical grippers, can be equippedwith this framing system. Three trian-gularly arranged interlocking toolsconnected to the baseframe ensurecomponents are held firmly and accu-rately in place. The system is the mostflexible on the market and capable ofbringing new model variants to themarket more quickly.

FlexFramer uses three robots (twoto pick and place and an optional reartool robot) to take the bodysides andplace them in position while weldingrobots apply the welds.

Robotic roller hemmingThe process of hemming is used tojoin two components by folding theedge of one over the other to create a mechanical interlock.

Many assembly lines around the worlduse ABB’s hemming equipment be-cause of its productivity and dimen-sional precision in the production ofdoors, hoods, sliding doors and otherautomotive parts. As well as table tophemming and die hemming systems,manufacturers can buy production cellsfor robotic roller hemming, a techniquewhich successfully hems corners.

This roller hemming method ishighly flexible, with fast set-up capa-bility and low maintenance costs.With a capacity of 5–80 panels perhour, it is suitable for both low andhigh volume production. It is highlyflexible, allowing the production ofup to four models on the same line.

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A handling robot brings the part to a pedestral gun.1 „All in one“ framing station – 4 models – for Holden Australia.2

A large part of the body shop, includ-ing underbody, framing line andrespot was installed in 2003. In addi-tion, front end, central and rear floorassembly lines were also provided.Over 100 FlexiCells are used in theproduction units and because theywere fully tested by ABB prior toshipping and then shipped whole tothe plant in Spain, the total installa-tion and commissioning time neededfor the cells was minimized.

For the underbody, framing and respotlines, Renault chose ABB’s standardunderbody pallet system, and thereforebenefits from the “locate and weld”concept. Here, one robot is equippedwith a geometrical gripper to accurate-ly locate a part for other robots toweld.

For body framing, ABB installed theFlexFramer system thereby givingRenault maximum flexibility in theirproduction line, especially at a timewhen new models need to be broughtquickly to the market.

The total production cycle in theValladolid plant is more than 70 carsper hour.

Simplicity for the futureNo more will dedicated jigs or com-plex equipment be required on theassembly line. These are now re-placed by ABB’s standardized Plugand Produce modules, which can beconfigured in a simple and flexiblemanner.

Adapted and defined on a customer-by-customer basis, this concept ischanging the way body shops are im-plemented and organized. And theyare also changing automakers’ prod-uct strategies in terms of diversity,manufacturing capacity, simultaneousinstallation in different plants, andvery short lead time. Such a conceptcontributes to the evolution of thebody-in-white technology and fullyresponds to these market require-ments. It simplifies the complete cardevelopment and manufacturingprocess and prepares the automotiveindustry for the future.

Bernard Negre

ABB MC

Beachamp, France

[email protected]

Marie-Pierre Picard

ABB MC

Saint Ouen L’Aumone, France

[email protected]

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Body Builders

Robot Based Measurement System(RBMS)As the demands for measurementflexibility and lower manufacturingtolerances increase, manufacturers, in particular those in the automotiveindustry, are looking for a robot“absolute accuracy” measurement ap-proach similar to what a CMM (coor-dinate measuring machine) offers.

ABB’s answer is an automatic in-linecalibration solution known as theRobot Based Measurement System1). It is a 3D measurement system whichuses 3D triangulation laser sensors toachieve absolute accuracy measure-ment capability, without calling forany additional correlation or offsetcompensation.

This solution makes the manufactureof accurate and repeatable workpiecesfrom robots cells simpler and faster.Tolerance to all kinds of changes thatmust be reckoned with on a real-world factory floor and which couldotherwise degrade product quality isimproved.

Standardized solutions in actionA few hundred kilometres to the north-west of Madrid lies the city of Valladol-id. It is here that Renault assembles its compact and spacious Modus car.Renault’s production facility in Valladol-id is special from an ABB point of viewin that it is an ideal example of thecompany’s body shop modular conceptin operation . To be more specific,the facility employs both the FlexiCelland FlexFramer standardized solutions.

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Roof positioning on car: the required accuracy is reached by ABB robots.

4 Even car body framing operations are done by ABB heavy load robots in the FlexFramer.

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Roller hemming robot carrying ABB patented hemming tool.

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Reference:1) See “Measures of accuracy”, pp 13–15.

Measures of accuracyAchieving “absolute accuracy” with a robot based measuring systemFabrice Legeleux

Have you ever wondered how theymake car-doors fit exactly into theirframes?

The shape matches precisely and thedoor opens and shuts perfectly everytime. In everyday use we may takethis for granted and accept nothing

less. On the assembly line, however,doors and thousands of other partsmust be matched with the car bodywithout requiring reworking or adjust-ments. These parts may be madefrom different materials, on differentproduction lines, in different facto-ries, by different companies and on

different continents. All of these sup-pliers must be able to produce partsand ship them in the confidence thatthey can and will all fit together andwork exactly as required. Strict mar-gins of manufacturing tolerance arerequired.


Keeping parameters within specifica-tions is primordial for quality assur-ance. Where parts are robot manufac-tured, this relies on precise position-ing of robot and workpiece.

Such precision is not as simple toachieve as it may seem. The realworld trajectory of the robot maydiverge from the predicted trajectoryfor a variety of reasons: The positionof the robot on the factory floor maynot match its intended position pre-cisely. Furthermore, the robot is ex-posed to wear, and thermal and envi-ronmental effects – settings that deliv-ered correct results in the morningmay no longer do so in the afternoon.Continuous re-calibration is required.

Increasing demands for measurementflexibility and lower manufacturing

tolerances are fuelling the develop-ment of new measuring systems. In-dustrial manufacturers, in particularautomotive , are looking for a robot“absolute accuracy” measurement ap-proach similar to what a CMM (coor-dinate measuring machine) offers.Indeed, all vision based robot measure-ment systems currently allow “only”relative measurements – requiring atedious initialization phase using ascribed part and a CMM correlation to link the measurement data to theCAD data.

ABB’s answer is a proven automaticin-line calibration solution allowing –for the first time – a 3D robot basedmeasurement system using 3D trian-gulation laser sensors to achieve ab-solute accuracy measurement capabili-ty, without calling for any additionalcorrelation or offset compensation.

The sources of errorsIndustrial robot actions are highlyrepeatable but typically show a pooraccuracy . The total error is approx-imately the sum of the inaccuracies of the individual components of therobot, from the concrete base slab tothe tooling at the end of the robotarm. Errors may be systematic (devia-tions in robot component dimensionsor their base positions), or fluctuating(thermal drift or variations in ambienttemperature).

When a program is transferred fromsimulation to a real robot station, con-siderable disparities between simulat-

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Measures of accurancy

Accuracy and repeatability: the work of mostindustrial robots is repeatable but not accu-rate. RBMS provides them with the meansto hit the centre of the target every time.

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Not repeatableNot accurate

Not repeatableAccurate

RepeatableNot accurate

RepeatableAccurate

A robot cell using RBMS.4

Protection enclosureWorkshop FloorMetrological concrete slab and robot risersCalibration monumentsElectrical cabinetIPNet controllerStation consoleRobot controllerh

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The base plate is a concrete slab.This provides a metrological baseand is protected against vibrationsfrom the workshop floor by a pe-ripheral joint. It is not connected tothe enclosure for the same reason.The base plate is, however, linkedto the robot risers (also concrete)to provide common rigidity. Calibration monuments are at-tached to the risers assuring stabili-ty of geometric relations over time.The monuments themselves aremade of silicon carbide for lowthermal expansion.

Measurement monuments with low expan-sion coefficients are used for calibration.

3

Robot manufacturing places high demands on repeatability and accuracy1


Measures of accurancy

ed and real results can beobserved. Deviations of sev-eral millimetres can ensue –sufficient to make manufac-tured parts unusable: a doorthat is too big won’t shutand one that’s too small willlet the rain in.

To surmount these prob-lems, a system is requiredpermitting the real 3D lo-cations of all parts of thecar to be measured withabsolute accuracy.

Calibration andcompensationAccurate reference monu-ments are located withinthe robot cell . These are first meas-ured with a stationary laser tracker,returning accurate measurements rela-tive to the car’s position. The samepositions are then measured again bythe robot’s “eye”. This eye is carriedby the robot and moved to the objectto be measured, so returning the ex-act robot settings required to reachthese positions. The two sets of dataobtained are used to create a so-called “inaccuracy map” of the robot.

This map correlates CAD positions to real-world robot settings. It is thebasis of the “absolute accuracy” of the robot’s positioning.

The procedure is used at the start ofproduction and is repeated periodical-ly to ensure and monitor repeatability.This approach not only assures therobot’s positional accuracy, but alsothe repeatability of its performanceover time irrespective of wear, tem-perature and other environmentalfactors.

illustrates a cold start production.When robot thermal drift exceeds 0.1 mm, this is automatically detectedby the robot controller and correctedby the compensation software; keep-ing total error within a much narrowerband than would otherwise be possi-ble.

Volumetric accuracy testTo additionally observe accuracy andrepeatability of this equipment, avolumetric accuracy test is used. This“hole bar test” uses a bar with tenequidistant holes and an ABB IRB 4400robot carrying a Perceptron FlexiCamsensor.

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The bar is made of material with alow thermal expansion coefficient. It is placed in several positions on arigid fixture throughout the work-ing envelope of the robot and pro-vides a measure of the repeatability ofthe robot’s self-adjustment. The test isbased on the norms used for classicCMM, such ISO 10360-2 and the ASMEB89.4.1 as well as the robot perform-ance standard ISO 9283.

6

Advantages of “absoluteaccuracy”The continuous calibrationand compensation cycle atthe heart of the RBMS phi-losophy makes this type ofproduction more robust:

Greater tolerance to ambi-ent temperature reducesdemands on air-condition-ing and temperature con-trol.Downtime for interven-tions such as replacingsensors is shortened due to automatic calibra-tion.100% of production iscontrolled.

Operational flexibility is also enhancedbecause:

Different car models can be pro-duced on a single line and newmodels easily added to runninglines.Instant feedback is provided whentooling adjustments are made (nec-essary, for example, when a newmodel is introduced).Calibrated measurement points areeasy to add using off-line program-ming.Standard robots can be used insteadof those with a built-in “absoluteaccuracy” option.No more time-consuming and cum-bersome correlation with CMM or“Gold Model”.

ConclusionABB’s robot based measurement sys-tem (RBMS) makes manufacturingaccurate and repeatable workpiecesfrom robots cells simpler and faster.Tolerance to all kinds of changes thathave to be reckoned with on a real-world factory floor and which couldotherwise degrade product quality is improved. And despite living in asub-optimal real world, production towithin 0.4mm of the ideal CAD worldis possible.

ABB is making sure your car doorsshut perfectly the first time and everytime!


Fabrice Legeleux

ABB MC

Beauchamp, France

[email protected]

2001: First performances testswith IRB 4400 and Perceptronvision system.2002: Validation of absoluteaccuracy performances withDynalog.2003: Industrial validation withRenault.2004: First four industrial robotsstations at Renault Flins plant.

Implementation history

The hole-bar test provides a measure of accuracy and repeatability of the robot’sself-adjustments.

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After a cold start the robot warms up leading to thermal expansion ofits parts. Settings that led to perfect results initially are to be correctedas the robot warms up. Drift is maintained within a very narrow margin.

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Compensation

Learning skillsRobotics technology in automotive powertrain assemblyHui Zhang, Zhongxue Gan, Torgny Brogard, Jianjun Wang, Mats Isaksson

The past 40 years have seenindustrial robots establishtheir superiority overhumans in most areas ofmanufacturing requiringendurance or repeatabili-ty. One important appli-cation domain, howev-er, has so far laggedbehind the industry’sexpectations: me-chanical assembly.As fast, preciseand dependableas they are, tra-ditional industri-al robots justdon’t seem ableto perform cer-tain assemblyoperations as wellas a skilled humanworker.


A task as simple asscrewing a light bulb

into a lamp socket showswhy. Applying the right

amount of force and turningthe bulb at just the right time, at

exactly the right angle, is some-thing a human does intuitively. Howcan a robot be programmed to dothis?

For robots to successfully emulatehumans on an assembly line, theyneed to have force-sensing capabilityand exhibit compliance. They mustbe able to direct forces and momentsin a controlled way, and react to con-tact information. New robot forcecontrol technology from ABB showshow.


Learning skills

Assembling automotive powertrains istraditionally manual work, performedby skilled, experienced operators.This is because gears and other criti-cal components of the clutches,torque converters and so on, have tobe aligned with very high precision ina constrained environment. Such op-erations, however, take their toll onhuman labor. Tedious and fatiguing,they can lead to repetitive-motionstress injury as well as lower productquality and efficiency. A robot able toperform at the same level as a humanoperator would obviously make theprospect of automation in this appli-cation area very attractive.

The problem with position-controlled robotsIf a position-controlled robot tries toalign a pair of gears and its controlprogram does not have precise infor-mation about the gear-tooth positions,the robot’s only option is iterative trialand error, repeated until the relativetooth positions are found. Any at-tempt by the robot to mate the gearsas long as they are misaligned willcause one gear to press hard againstthe other, generating unacceptablyhigh contact forces. Even if the teethwere chamfered to facilitate mating,misalignment would still producelarge side forces as the robot strug-gled to move the gear along the pre-programmed path toward the center-line of insertion. More than likely, thegears would even jam unless somemeans of mechanical compliance isprovided.

The remote center compliance (RCC)device was developed to solve thisproblem. Fitted with elastomer shearpads to reduce the contact forces, itenables an assembly machine to com-pensate for positioning errors causedby lack of accuracy, by vibration orby inadequate tolerances. As soon asits compliance center approaches thecontact point, the (male) part beinginserted aligns automatically with thefemale part by yielding to the highcontact forces that are generated bylateral and rotational misalignment.Neither the parts nor the tool aredamaged.

Unfortunately, as useful as the RCCdevice is, it cannot be used for manyof the assembly tasks found in anautomotive plant. There are severalreasons for this. First, the geometriesof the assembly parts are complex and

vary widely, making it necessary tofrequently change from one part-spe-cific device to another. Also, since thedevice itself is not able to position androtate the parts relative to each other,assembly takes longer. All in all, thereis a higher risk of malfunctioning.

Learning from usHumans are remarkable for their agili-ty of thought and action when facedwith assembling complex parts – ap-plying insertion force where appropri-ate, yielding before a part becomesjammed. Human assembly workers in-stinctively learn to make the best use

of compliance, sensed forces and mo-ments, and tactile contact clues fromedges and boundaries, to quickly ob-tain the desired result. One featurethat clearly distinguishes humans fromindustrial robots is our ability to sensea contact force and respond to it. Forrobots to emulate human behavior,they therefore need to exhibit similarforce-sensing capability and compli-ance and be able to direct forces andmoments in a controlled way, as well as react to contact information.All of this calls for a change in thetraditional robot position control para-digm.

F/N torque converter assembly with force controlled IRB 6400.1

The ABB solutionAs the supplier of the world’s largestinstalled base of robotic products,ABB continuously researches and de-velops new technology for robot ap-plications. Part of this ongoing activityincludes university collaborations, andin one of these ABB scientists and en-gineers teamed up with researchersfrom Case Western Reserve Universityin Ohio, USA, and Lund University inSweden, to develop a new force/posi-tion hybrid platform based on ABB’sS4Cplus robot controller. Around thesame time the team also began collab-orating with Ford Motor Company tolearn more about the specific applica-tion requirements. This project yield-ed a general solution for force con-trol-based assembly applications.

The outcome of this work is a solu-tion that makes ABB robots “sensitive”as well as powerful. What is more,this new sensitivity is gained withoutany loss of existing capability or func-tionality. Hallmark features of ABBrobots – advanced control for fastacceleration, enhanced communica-tion and high reliability, to name afew – are all retained.

The technology was initially tested onIRB 4400 and IRB 6400 robots, withpayloads ranging from 30 to 200kg,used to assemble different automotivepowertrain parts. These tasks, whichcan be considered complex, includedinserting forward clutch hubs and theassembly of F/N torque converters .The tests demonstrated consistentlysuperior performance in terms ofcycle time, acceptable insertion force,reliability and ease of programming.

To emulate human behav-ior, robots need to exhibitforce-sensing capabilityand compliance, be ableto direct forces in a con-trolled way and react tocontact information.

Harmonious position and force controlWhile the literature on robot forcecontrol is formidable, the results havegenerally been less than impressive.Achieving acceptably fast robot move-ment while assuring contact stabilityhas persisted as a challenge. Manypromising intelligent-control methodshave been investigated, but superim-posing slow force control on positioncontrol has typically resulted in poorperformance.

The concept of impedance and admit-tance1) is also helpful in understand-ing force control in a robot. Alongeach degree of freedom the instanta-neous power flow between two ormore physical systems can be definedas the product of two conjugate vari-ables, an effort (force) and a flow(velocity). An obvious but importantphysical constraint is that no one sys-tem may determine both variables.Along any degree of freedom a ma-nipulator may exert a force on itsenvironment or impose a displace-ment or velocity on it, but it may notdo both. Thus, an assembly robotshould have the property of admit-tance, accepting force (input) andyielding motion (output). The under-standing is that once contact force issensed during assembly, the robot’s

1

motion should be changed in a con-trolled manner so as not to furtherincrease the contact force.

Using the concept of maximumachievable passive admittance as afoundation, ABB’s engineers con-structed intelligent control methodsthat integrate seamlessly with existingadvanced position control methodsand guarantee stable, gentle contact inmost common production environ-ments. The design also ensures a smooth transition between the forcecontrol and position control modes.

Easy to programAlthough a robot with active forcecontrol has the advantage of beingversatile and programmable for differ-ent applications, it requires a moreadvanced control system and adaptedprogramming to specify how the ro-bot should interact with external con-straints. Research so far has focusedon the control strategy and its capaci-ty for enabling the robot to establishstable, gentle contact while interactingwith the environment. At present,there exists neither a high-level pro-gramming language nor a suitableprogramming concept with which toexploit the force control capability.

Introducing force feedback only en-ables an industrial robot to respond to an environmental force. In no waydoes it tell the robot how to movewhen mating parts. A force controlenabled compliant robot can thereforeonly try to avoid high contact force; it lacks a mechanism for mating parts,such as gears, according to their geo-metrical contours. Jamming of theassembly pieces is prevented, but nohelp is provided with aligning them.The presumption that a robot’s posi-tion can be modified via the interac-tion forces is difficult, if not impossi-ble to put into practice when matinguncertainty is high and there are somany possible contact scenarios thatthey are mathematically impossible tohandle.

The ABB solution relieves users of theburden of complex programming byintroducing the concept of attractionforce. Coupled with admittance-basedfast force control, this ensures notonly that contact is made gently, butalso that the part being mated is posi-tioned for accurate alignment. As soonas all the alignment requirements aresatisfied, the robot can begin its part-


Learning skills

Footnote1) In force control, the relationship between force and

velocity is very important as a means of understand-

ing system behavior in terms of stability and perform-

ance. The impedance is defined as force divided by

velocity, while admittance is its inverse.

Cycle time statistics for F/N torque converter assembly with an IRB 6400 robot with vacuum gripper.

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Assembly force for a forward clutch withadvanced force control.

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Total trials: 1000Failure (>15s): 0Average: 6.98 sMax: 12.12 sMin: 4.05 s


Learning skills

specific search and execute the as-sembly. A typical assembler programcould look as simple as this:

Set attraction force;Set search parameter;Set destination;Move to start point;Activate force control;If contact

Activate search;EndifIf destination is notreached

Keep searching;EndifDeactivate search;Deactivate force control;Restract

Strength plus agilityClearly, the lighter the parts being as-sembled, the easier it is to apply just aslight contact force. This is even truefor manual assembly. When assem-bling heavy parts it is no easy matterto limit the allowable contact force toless than the weight of the part beingmoved into position, as it requires theoperator to support that part, againstthe force of gravity, while goingthrough the assembly steps. The workcan be tricky as well as backbreaking.

An example is the assembly of Ford’sF/N torque converter case, whichweighs about 25 kg. Inside this case isa double splined gear-set into which apump gear has to be inserted. Thepump gear seal is critical and greatcare has to be taken to ensure it is notdamaged in any way during the inser-tion. An internal splined shaft has tobe fitted at the same time, complicat-ing the assembly.

Tests carried out with ad-vanced force control in in-dustry have demonstratedits ability to improve cycletime and agility in differentassembly applications.

ABB’s robotic solution for this taskstarted with the choice of robot, anIRB 6400. This was selected on thebasis of its payload capacity of 150kg– the weight of the parts it can sup-port, without help, and without con-tributing to any undesirable contactforces. Tests showed that the IRB 6400is able to handle a total weight of 75kg(the combined weights of the part,gripper, force sensor, etc) and still limitthe contact force to less than 200 N.

Advanced force controlled ABB ro-bots, as the tests demonstrated, arecapable of extremely delicate assem-bly operations, even when heavyparts are involved. Arm movement is‘feather-light’ but still powerful, acombination that suits assembly appli-cations in a wide range of industries.

Superior performance,reliable operationThe tests carried out with advancedforce control in the automotive indus-try have convincingly demonstrated itsability to improve cycle time and agili-ty in different assembly applications.

In one application involving the inser-tion of a forward clutch , a workcell with an IRB 4400 robot averaged5.7 seconds for the insertion with areaction force of less than 100 N oninitial contact and under 80 N duringassembly (performed manually, inser-tion typically takes 15 to 20 seconds).In another, F/N torque converterswere assembled in an average time of 6.98 seconds with the contact forcelimited to 200 N . Here it is worthnoting that, in addition to the partitself weighing about 25kg, theallowed positional tolerance was +/–2mm.

ABB’s S4Cplus robot controller is ac-claimed throughout the manufacturingindustry as the most reliable on themarket today. The add-on force con-trol option was developed to enhancethis reputation. Leaving nothing tochance, its supervisory functions alsomonitor the robot for potential sensorerror and communication error in ad-dition to the possibility of operationalerror.

Benefits for a broader marketDeveloped primarily for assembly ap-plications in the automotive industry

, advanced force control has poten-tial benefits for many other areas ofindustry. Quick market acceptance isexpected, especially where absence ofthe “human element” in mechanicalassembly – the ability to “get it justright, first time” – has been a problemin the past. In bringing this innovationto market, ABB is once again under-scoring its position as the industryleader in robotics technology.

The article was first published in

ABB Review 1/2004 pp 13–16.


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Dr. Hui Zhang

Dr. Zhongxue Gan

Dr. Jianjun Wang

ABB Corporate Research

Windsor, CT, USA

[email protected]

Dr. Torgny Brogardh

Mats Isaksson

ABB Automation Technologies AB

Västeras, Sweden

[email protected]

Application map for advanced force controlin the automotive industry.

4

Powertrain assembly

Engine• Bearing Installation

• Bearing liner Insertion

• Gear pump assembly

• Piston assembly

• Spark plug assembly

• Valve Insertion

• Reverse servo installation

Trans/gearbox• Bearing Installation


• Clutch plate assembly

• Forward clutch hub assembly

• Splined shaft insertion

• Sun gear assembly

• Torque converter assembly

• Transmission accumulator

assembly

• Transmission differential

assembly

• Triple clutch assembly

Cylinder head• Bearing Installation


• Cylinder head assembly

Axle• Bearing Installation


• Planetary carrier assembly

• Planetary pinion insertion

• Splined shaft insertion

• Sun gear assembly

Misc.• Bearing Installation


• Piston assembly

The automated production of com-plex metal parts would hardly be pos-sible without robots. Robots repeatthe same movement sequences end-lessly and tirelessly, delivering highquality workmanship at low cycletimes. However, with robot technolo-gy alone, this would hardly be possi-ble . . .

The tools used by the robots are anequally important part of the process.They must fulfill the same high de-mands on accuracy, repeatability andreliability as the robots themselves,and they must interface optimallywith the robots.

Welding sees the lightPrecision welding with lasers and robotsFabrice Legeleux



Welding sees the light

Welding requires a heat application ofaround 103 W/cm2. If too much ener-gy is applied, the metal evaporates. If not enough is applied, the heat isconducted away too quickly. In laserwelding, a powerful laser delivers thisenergy. Laser welding technologymust additionally consider such as-pects as focusing and controlling theposition of the welding spot.

Different laser welding technologiesexist. One common approach is theCO2 laser. This technology, despitewhat its name may suggest, typicallyuses a gas mixture with 70% He, 15%CO2 and 15% N2. A drawback of CO2

lasers is that the light cannot be trans-mitted along fiber optic cables. In-stead, a system of mirrors is used. Veryprecise coordination is necessary todirect the light to the correct location.

The Nd:YAG laser (neodymium yttriumaluminum garnet) solves this problem.It is a solid state pumped laser whoselight can be transmitted along flexiblefiber optical cables. Because of this,Nd:YAG lasers are finding increasinguse in body in white applications.

The technology does have its draw-backs: The efficiency of an Nd:YAGlaser source is limited to around 2–3%,and the light quality is inferior to thatof a CO2 laser. The flexibility offeredby being able to use fibre optics makemany customers prefer this technolo-gy however.

To offset the low laser efficiency, thetechnology must strive for the highestpossible productive laser uptime. This isachieved using a mirror that switchesthe ray between cells: ideally, one cellstarts welding the moment the other cellstops – and the light is never wasted!

The new IRC5 industrial robot con-troller provides unparalleled capabili-ties with its MultiMove functionality1)

precisely synchronizing multiple ro-bots with extreme accuracy. It alsocontrols the mirror that switches theray, ensuring that this perfectly match-es the movements of the robot.

The use of a fiber optic connectionhas another important advantage: Thewelding source is not rigidly attachedto the robot . This saves on time-consuming alignment and adjustment

1

work when the welding source ischanged.

Safety first!The light from such a powerful sourceas a welding laser diode can causepermanent blindness. Hence, greatestcare is taken to ensure the safety ofstaff at all times. Even reflected lightis hazardous; with this in mind, thecell is uncompromisingly implementedto eliminate risk of contact. The en-closure is made of multiple layers ofsheet metal supported by a steelframe. According to risk-analysis rec-ommendations, various sections maybe additionally reinforced.

Robust automatic doors are providedfor workpieces to enter and leave thecell. Their size is varied to suit theproduct being manufactured and canrange from small up to garage-doorsize. Additionally, a service door isprovided for staff to access the cell. A safety mechanism monitors theseopenings and ensures welding cannottake place while any door is not com-pletely shut and locked. Any attemptto open a door during operation stopsthe process instantly.

Perfect positioningBesides the welding robots and theirassociated equipment, the cells alsocontain positioners to optimally orientthe workpiece for welding and so re-duce cycle times.

Perfect coordination between the ro-bots and positioners in the cell is re-quired to produce a suitably accurateweld. This coordination is providedby ABB’s IRC5 robot controller, whichcan control up to four robots or posi-tioners simultaneously.

Additional accuracy is gained usingSeam Tracking (ST) technology, inwhich optical recognition guides thewelder perfectly along the seam.

Seam TrackingIn Seam Tracking, the robot “sees” andfollows the intended welding seam us-ing a focus optic. This optic is thesame that is used to focus the mainwelding beam (Beam Path IntegratedVision). The lack of additional cameraoptics leads to a compact tool design.

Seam tracking is supported by a pow-erful software that analyzes the pic-tures fed to it by the camera and ad-justs the spot position accordingly.

A cycle time of about 40ms leads toan exceptional responsiveness.

A roller positions the welding tool onthe seam line and presses the twopieces of metal together at a definedpressure to assure optimal bonding.The pressure is pneumatically regulatedand adjustable. The roller angle is fixedbut the optics tilt to follow the contoursof the workpiece. Filler wire, protectivegas nozzle, welding beam focusing unitand workpiece sensor are all attachedto this press device (PD) module, as-suring they are always in the intendedpositions, and that they all “float” along

2

Laser welding fixture.1

Press device module.2

Welding cell in China.3

Reference:1) See Team mates, pp 53–56.

the seam together. Different PD moduledesigns are available depending on theapplication. For example, a flange jointweld needs a two-wheel configuration– one wheel for every sheet, whereas asingle wheel is normally sufficient foran overlap joint.

The following customer use-cases de-scribe laser-welding applications real-ized in cooperation by ABB and Per-manova.

Laser welding cell in ChinaA customer in China uses a robot laserwelding system for manufacturing sev-eral types of stainless steel boxes .The requirements placed on the weld-ing equipment are very high becauseno oxygen may leak into the boxes.

The robot cell contains two weldingstations. Each has its own door forloading and unloading workpieces

. A welding robot is located betweenthe stations and can access eitherstation through door-protected openingsin the walls of the workstation .

In one station , the boxes are weld-ed. To assist this process, an adjustablepositioner orients the workpiece.While this station is being loaded orunloaded, the robot switches to theother station , where other assemblyparts and fastening elements are laserwelded. Using this technique, com-plete subassemblies can be laser weld-ed, providing savings in assemblywork and logistics.

The laser beam from a single 3300 Wdiode pumped Nd:YAG laser is guidedthrough a flexible optical fiber to the

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welding tool. The laser output isswitched between the stations in thecell, so making optimal use of laseruptime, and accomplishing two tasksin a single work cycle.

The cell is equipped with a PermanovaWT03 Laser Welding Tool and an ABBrobot. The system uses Seam Trackingtechnology and the AW hybrid-weldingfeature with a MIG power source.

Using a laser for welding assures tightseams while causing very little heatdeformation. It also only requiresaccess from one side, so reducinghandling requirements.

Renault Megane roof weldingKarmann is an important supplier ofcomponents and services to the auto-mobile industry. A welding systemfrom ABB and Permanova is in use attheir Rheine plant in Germany. Itwelds the thin zinc-coated steel framesthat hold the Megane’s “glass roof”.The customer chose this solution be-cause only the seam-tracking systemcould deliver the required accuracy.

The slender workpieces can easily bedeformed by in inappropriate weldingprocess. The small and precise weld-ing spot as delivered by a guidedlaser was the appropriate solution.

Variant cutting at VolvoIn Volvo’s Torslanda plant, robot-weld-ing systems from ABB and Permanovaare used for variant cutting of semi-as-sembled car bodies. To cut costs, thecross-country model, XC70 sharesside-panels with the standard V70,saving costs in tooling and handling.

The variant cutting system is basedaround two robots, one on either sideof the line. These share a laser sourceand cut to an accuracy of 0.1 mm.

This process requires the cutting ofcurved trajectories. It is extremely diffi-cult to guide a cutting unit so precise-ly. Failure to do so, however, leads tojagged corners. The ability to fulfill thisrequirement gave this product a clearadvantage over competitor’s solutions.

After this process, the cut-out part is re-trieved by a dedicated robot fixture. Thecollected parts are counted to make surenone has been left inside a car.

Customer stories are courtesy of Permanova AB.

Fabrice Legeleux

ABB MC

Beauchamp, France

[email protected]


Welding sees the light

Laser welding of metal boxes.4

Permanova Lasersystem AB deliv-ers robotized laser processingsystems globally, mainly for laserwelding (including hybrid weld-ing and brazing), laser cuttingand laser marking. Permanovaalso designs and manufactureslaser process tools and calibra-tion tools, and supplies serviceand spare parts.

PERMANOVA Lasersystem AB isbased in Mölndal near Gothen-burg, Sweden.web-site: www.permanova.se.

Permanova AB

A look inside the cell of .35

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Unique andingeniousUsing robots to produce small batches or even single units – once unthinkable – is now reality!Göran Bergling – Andon Automation AB

Until recently, any robot operator would have told you that the great strength of robotics lay in mass production. In the automobileindustry for example, robots – once set up – produced hundreds ofthousands if not millions of identical items with hardly any humanintervention. When it came to handling smaller batches, however,the high costs of programming and verification made robots in-creasingly inflexible and uneconomic; the idea of producing singleunits was entirely out of the question. A new generation of pro-gramming tools have changed that paradigm.

Today robots work efficiently also with small batches. For example,welding robots are used in shipyards and for building bridges –areas where practically every unit built is different from any that was made before. Despite the uniqueness of every job, robots areproviding customers with market leverage through lower costs andhigher quality and flexibility.

How is this achieved? The answer liesin the use of powerful software tosupport the programming process.Such software can, for example, de-rive trajectories directly from CAD da-ta and uses 3D simulation techniquesto avoid collisions.

Partnership in heavy weldingA component of ABB’s strategic direc-tion is to seek out partnership withcompanies having global reach andwhich complements ABB’s own engi-neering know-how. Andon Automa-tion AB is such a partner focusing onrobotic welding and thermal cuttingapplications. In these applications,components are produced in large se-ries or small batches. The core com-petence of Andon is related to the arcwelding process, production logisticsand handling of external axes. Its em-ployees have, on average, 14 years ofexperience in robotic arc welding.The company has developed systemmodules for robot carriers and posi-tioners to handle customer productsup to 50 tonnes in weight. In combi-nation with ABB robot technology, aunique market offer is realized. Virtu-ally any size and shape of product iscovered by combining standardizedmodules.


In 1987, Andon’s predecessor formedan agreement with Kranendonk Pro-duction Systems. This company, basedin The Netherlands, is a supplier ofturnkey automated production systemsfor the industry, including installation,production start up and customer train-ing. Its portfolio includes offline pro-gramming and on line control softwarefor industrial robots and CNC con-trolled machines. These allow for easyintegration with the customer computersystems, supplying the production datafor continuous one-piece production.

Together with Kranendonk, Andonengineers have designed and imple-mented more than 100 systems forsingle piece production in the infra-structure industry. Examples are thedeliveries of complete systems for thewelding of ship panels to NewportNews, Aker Warnow Werft, KvaernerPhiladelphia, Chantiers de l’Atlantiqueand Fincantieri .

Automatic welding of superstructuresdemands the highest component qual-ity, both with respect to hardware and software as well as the supplier’sability to integrate the system into thecustomers’ production environment.Depending on the application, varioustypes of ABB robots are used. All of-fer high stability, unique path follow-ing and integration with external axesand the arc welding process. The arcwelding functionality allows for con-trol of advanced sensor technologies,which – in combination – assure ahigh weld quality .

The integration and control of robotgantry motions and positioning is of

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extreme importance. Andon’s modularsystem for robot carriers facilitatesrobotic welding of extreme productsizes such as double-bottomed hullsections for oil tankers (24 × 16 ×3 meters). All external and internalrobot axes are integrated into oneunit, thus the system works as onemacro-sized robot. Because of thestability and motion performance ofthe gantry, the system offers full con-trol over all weld positions .

Programming – IntegrationThe programming method used de-pends on the application, on the levelof automation, and on the number ofwelding robots. In addition to Robot-

4


General Industry – Flexible productionIn most installations, industrial robotsare employed for mass production.Once the robot is programmed, it cancontinue welding without productionstops for years on end. However,market conditions are continuouslychanging: In the early 80’s, supplyingcompanies had to start adapting to anincrease in model variants and ordersfor small batches.

Making welding systems more flexiblemeans eliminating set-up times: thusthe robot is able to produce batchesdown to a single item. The user gainsnew competitive leverage such asshorter lead times, flexibility, stockreduction, improved productivity, andthe means to produce directly to meetindividual customer orders. The resultis a drastic reduction in productioncosts, leading to higher competitive-ness on the world market. Over theyears Andon and its predecessorshave implemented a large number offlexible concepts for different prod-ucts inside general industry segments

.

Robotic Welding in infrastructureenvironmentThe technology described above is,however, not applicable to the infra-structure industry (eg, ship-building,offshore, aircraft, boiler, constructionindustries and bridges). In these sec-tors, most of the parts needing to bewelded are different in shape, sizeand configuration. Robot welding timeper unit is extensive and welds mustbe applied over a vast area. Conven-tional programming methods cannotbe applied.

1

Unique and ingenious

Flexible production of trailer sub-components.1 ABB IRB 140 inside a ship structure.2

Gantry fully dressed during factory acceptance test.

4

IRB 2400 in process of welding ship panels.3


Unique and ingenious

Studio from ABB, two software prod-ucts from Kranendonk, ARAC andRINAS, are used.

RobotStudio is an offline programmingand simulation system that is based onVirtualRobot technology. That is, it in-corporates the real software that is usedto run robots in production. It is thusideally suited to verify that generatedprograms will run as intended, that the

robots can reach all programmed pointsand that there is no interference withfixtures and other objects in the work-space of the robot .

ARAC is a parameterised macro-basedprogramming system, where the oper-ator directly defines the work order,or where work orders are created byimporting and filtering CAD data.Manual input is considerably lowerthan robot production time. Program-ming of a new block is performedwhile the robot is welding the previ-ous block: the robot can work withoutany production stops.

The ARAC system also takes care ofthe online production control. Produc-tion processes can be monitored, andif needed, corrected through an easyto use graphical interface.

RINAS is a model-based system thatautomatically generates collision freerobot programs. The main objective ofthis package is to create and maintaina combined model with full controlover the 3D workspace and the ob-jects within this space. In practice,this means that Rinas creates a colli-sion free robot program from the cus-tomer’s CAD data with virtually noprogramming time .

The base of the Rinas software pack-age is the ROMA concept (RobotizedModel based Automation). ROMAallows easy adaptation of Rinas soft-ware to a variety of industrial process-es. The software is CAD system inde-pendent and is suitable for a broadrange of applications, such as model-ing castings, grinding propeller

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blades, welding double hull assem-blies and cutting curved segments.

Chantiers de l’AtlantiqueOne of the latest deliveries from An-don/Kranendonk includes four doublerobot-welding gantries for the Frenchbased shipyard Chantiers de l’Atlan-tique. The shipyard is a major globalsupplier of cruise ships. Last autumn,the Queen Mary II was launched,probably one of the most advancedand modern ships on the oceans .

The four double robot-weldinggantries are an autonomous produc-tion system for the fabrication of webpanels. Working in synergy, Andonand Kranendonk have created a sys-tem consisting of four individual lines,which should be programmed by onesingle operator. The four weldinggantries are each equipped with twoABB robots and feature the latestwelding technologies with torch cali-bration and seam tracking facilities.

Single piece production is no longerutopia in the infrastructure industry.Andon and Kranendonk have trans-formed the vision to reality.

7

Göran Bergling

Sales and Applications

Andon Automation AB

[email protected]

Robot Studio model of web production cell.5 RINAS model of ship structure.6

The Swedish company AndonAutomation AB was formed in2004 by taking over the arc weld-ing system business from ABB,who had built it on its 1993 acqui-sition of the robot activities ofSwedish ESAB, a world leader inthe supply of welding consumablesand equipment. ESAB had alreadyin 1987 formed a partnership withKranendonk of the Netherlands. At the time Andon was establishedexperienced engineers from ABBjoined the new company andformed its substantial knowledgeand experience base.

Andon Automation AB

Cruise ship – Queen Mary II7

The concept of the traditional welder at work in his smithy is beingreplaced by a more high-tech view of the craft. Who isn’t familiar withpictures of robot welders at work on production lines? Designers andmanufacturers take precise and clean mass-produced welds for granted.But teaching a robot to weld isn’t as easy as it may seem.

Whereas a human welder draws on experience and intuition in choosingthe correct welding technique and settings, a robot welder must be in-structed in every detail of the procedure. Despite the availability of con-siderable theoretical knowledge, a series of test runs are often required todetermine the correct settings. Such runs waste test materials and blockrobots that could otherwise be in revenue generating use. The costs andtime involved mean that the number of test scenarios must be limited andthe optimum can easily be missed.

ABB has developed a software toolenabling programmers and processengineers to reliably determine theresult of a weld. VirtualArc® permits a rapid yet detailed evaluation of sce-narios. The reduced need for test runscuts costs whilst optimizing produc-tivity and quality.

“Black art”For many years, welding using theMIG/MAG process has been consid-ered a “black art”. Most people knowthat welding is the process of joiningtwo metal parts together, but very fewunderstand the parameters involvedand their bearing on the result.

This ambiguity does not just confuseordinary people: It is said that whenten welding engineers or welders areasked how a given task should beapproached, ten different parametersettings are suggested – all of themachieving the same result!

Complex processThe MIG/MAG process is very com-plex. To fully understand the theorybehind it requires in-depth knowledgeof arc physics, fluid dynamics, materi-al science, arc-electrode interaction,amongst others. Very few people inthe world have all this knowledge,and of those that do, it is unlikely thatany have any practical hands-on weld-ing experience.

On the other hand, many very skilledwelders in the industry perform per-fect welds without any special knowl-edge of arc physics and the sciencebehind it. Rather, their choices areguided by so-called “feeling” for theprocess itself. Such knowledge cantherefore be found only in the “head”of each individual welder.

Unfortunately, the number of suchskilled welders will most certainlydecrease in the future, making itincreasingly difficult for the weldingindustry to be successful.

The challengeWelding equipment suppliers mustcombine the science behind theMIG/MAG process with practicalexpertise: Welding must evolve fromtoday’s “black art” to a modern fullycontrollable manufacturing process.

The welding industry itself is interest-ed in raising cost efficiency by usingsimulation tools as much as possible

VirtualArc®

Transforms welding from “black art” to practicalscienceDick Skarin, Brith Claesson, Göran Bergling



Virtual Arc®

costs for automated processes aresaved. The robust software packageoffers a user-friendly interface, whichhelps minimize process implementa-tion time and hence reduces the costsof automated arc welding.

Arc welding processsimulation technologyThe technology behind the VirtualArc®

software is based on the combinationof arc-physics, a self-consistent two-dimensional wire-arc workpiece simu-lation tool, practical experience witharc welding and experimental results.

The software consists of differentmodules that are strongly inter-con-nected with the whole process system,including power source characteristicsand connecting cables. Weld profileand quality predications are obtainedusing Bayesian neural network tech-

nology. Predictions from arc simula-tions, and heat and mass transfer tothe work-piece are used as input tothe neural network to predict weldquality and profile as well as defects.

The VirtualArc® softwareVirtualArc® consists of different mod-ules with input pages with which theuser enters data on the system param-eters, the application and the weldprocess. The first page asks for infor-mation on the weld power source,gun, cables and wire feed system. Thesecond asks for the materials, platethickness, joint configuration, gap,weld geometry and weld class (B, Cor D). On the third page details arerequested of the wire and gas specifi-cations and whether a short arc, sprayarc or rapid arc is to be employed.

Armed with this data, the softwarethen undertakes a pre-weld analysisusing a Bayesian neural network tool

. A further page graphically displaysthe predictions from the analysis ofthe weld parameters, the weld profileand the required or default speeds andtorch angles. The user can inspecttime graphs of current and voltage anda cross section of the weld. The lattershows the depth of weld penetrationand profile, enabling the user to assessthe quality and knowing the speed, es-timate the productivity of the process.

Entering the relevant data literallytakes a few minutes. The analysis iscompleted in seconds. VirtualArc®enables significant time saving by elim-inating the need for live weld test runsand the subsequent sectioning of theweld for inspection. In addition tocosting time, such live test runs con-sume components and materials andremove the valuable robots from theproduction process. VirtualArc® alsoallows rapid appraisal of “what if”scenarios. In just a few seconds, theeffect of different weld speeds andtorch angles can be evaluated, makingit easier to find ways of improvingproductivity and/or weld quality. Inaddition, there are cost and investmentpages that enable the user to accurate-ly and rapidly determine expenditureand justify the application beforewelding is undertaken.

Simulation versus realityWhenever software replaces testing,the validity of the results is often inquestion. Comparison of VirtualArc®

predictions with test welding data

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for production optimization and plan-ning.

ABB have taken up the challenge ofserving robot arc welding customersby fulfilling these criteria.

The product, VirtualArc®

A unique simulation tool called Vir-tualArc® has been developed to meetthe arc welding requirements of cus-tomers. VirtualArc® offers robot pro-grammers, operators and welding en-gineers an “expert” system providingin-depth analysis of the arc weldingprocess. Its use leads to improve-ments in process control, final weld-ing quality and productivity.

The simulation tool incorporates state-of-the-art technology, facilitating pre-diction of the dominant phenomena inthe weld. Implementation time and

VirtualArc pre-weld analysis page. Analysis is carried out using a Bayesian neural network tool.

1

Simulation versus reality:2

Real weld profile.

1 mm:

Simulated weld profile.

shows that the simulated weld profileis extremely close to its real weldcounterpart .

VirtualArc® benefitsFeaturing an easy-to-use software in-terface, VirtualArc® can be operatedfrom a single PC or laptop. It providesusers with efficient “off-line” weldingprocess tuning, which predict a widerange of results including weld shapeand penetration, weld quality andpossible welding defects.

Predicting such results brings substan-tial benefits including shorter imple-mentation time, optimised weldingproductivity and quality, and welldocumented welding procedures. Inturn these considerations contribute to lower production costs’ .

As well as saving time and moneythrough better production, VirtualArc®

is also an efficient training tool forrobot operators, programmers andproduction/welding engineers, and anexcellent platform for retrieving andstoring arc welding process informa-tion for future developments. Virtu-alArc® is also useful for comparingdifferent weld procedures in cost permetre of weld.

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Two tools from ABB play an importantrole here: RobotStudio and VirtualArc®.RobotStudio is used to define and cre-ate robot programs offline without re-quiring any real robots to be divertedfrom their productive activity, and Vir-tualArc® is used to evaluate and setwelding parameters. Both tools elimi-nate risk and shorten the productiontime for new programs while maintain-ing plant productivity.

Göran Bergling of Andon Automationsays that “rom a single PC or laptopwe can predict close to exact weldconfiguration, which results in sub-stantial benefits such as short imple-mentation time, optimised weldingproductivity and quality – all con-tributing to lower production costs”.

VirtualArc® also facilitates cost andinvestment analysis, enabling AndonAutomation to support their customersby providing financial analyses of pro-duction scenarios.

Bergling adds that as a supplier ofadvanced robot systems, Andon seesRobotStudio and VirtualArc® as excel-lent tools in the application and im-plementation phases. On top of this,he predicts that customers will benefitfrom these technologies in years tocome.

VirtualArc® is a tool that enables qual-ity and productivity to be increasedand costs to be cut. Customers aregiven a head start in a competitiveand tough market.





Virtual Arc®

Dick Skarin


Sweden

[email protected]

Brith Claesson

ABB Corporate Research

Sweden

[email protected]

Göran Bergling

Andon Automation AB

Sweden

[email protected]

VirtualArc® in use: the exampleof Andon AutomationMarket pressure is forcing weldingequipment users to raise their produc-tivity. One way to do this is by mak-ing increased use of equipment;around-the-clock production is no ex-ception. Production stops are costlyand must be kept to a minimum.

The welding industry isinterested in raising costefficiency by using simula-tion tools as much aspossible for productionoptimization and planning.

One company that helps manufactur-ers meet these goals is Andon Auto-mation1). Andon Automation not onlyprovides welding customers withhardware (eg, robots, positioners, ro-bot carriers and welding equipment),but also provides support using ad-vanced software tools.

Robot gantry system during testing and before delivery.3

Reference:1) See also “Unique and ingenious”, pp 23–25.

The story begins in 1999 with the de-ployment of 100 RCS manufactured byABB. This project, ABB’s first with theUSPS, was a major success. The RCSsystem supplied to the USPS is an auto-mated sorting system for mail traysbased on the ABB IRB 840 gantry ro-bot. Two robots are used per RCS in-stallation. The RCS sorts trays of lettermail or magazines (called flats) into24 postal mail containers. Such opera-tions were previously performed man-ually. The RCS system was well re-ceived by the USPS because it im-

proved the accuracy of the sorting op-eration (thereby providing significantcost savings), improved productivity,and reduced the potential for liftingrelated injuries.

Shortly after the deployment of thelast production RCS in 2001, the USPSreduced capital spending in automa-tion due to new security concernsbrought on by the September 11th ter-rorist attacks. Throughout the ensuingtwo and a half years (between theend of RCS-I and the beginning of

RCS-II), ABB maintained close contactwith the USPS and fostered a collabo-rative relationship beneficial to bothcompanies. This relationship and ded-icated work by ABB staff ultimatelyresulted in a USPS request for a pro-posal for 67 additional units – andultimately the new contract.

ABB Customer Service had been amajor contributor to the RCS phase 1program. The company provided allspare parts support, training develop-ment and delivery as well as the man-


Mail OrderABB robots are sorting mail for the U.S. Postal Service!Jerry L. Osborn, Erwin C. Dimalanta

Until the mail service can deliver aletter to you, it has to pass throughmany hands in many places – in-creasingly even the hands of robots.

From 1999 to 2001, 100 RobotizedContainerization Systems (RCS) fromABB entered service with the U.S.Postal Service (USPS). But, ABB’s in-volvement did not end there. Besidesthe usual maintenance, training andupgrades, ABB was soon providingmore far-reaching services. One in-stallation had to be completely re-conditioned following damage in theaftermath of an anthrax attack. Otherinstallations had to be relocated fol-lowing changes in the deploymentplans of the customer.

ABB’s focus and dedication in com-pleting these planned and unplannedtasks placed them in a good positionfor winning a follow-on contract. From mid 2005, ABB will deliver 67 systems of a second generationRCS-II.

The nature of ABB support was de-fined in the aftermath of 9/11. Shortlyafter the terrorist attacks in New York,the US Postal Service was the victimof several anthrax attacks on theirfacilities. After extensive study, theUSPS directed that the facility be de-contaminated by an infusion of chlo-rine dioxide followed by a secondinfusion of neutralizing chemicals.The chemicals rendered the remaininganthrax spores harmless but at a price– they were very corrosive and causedsignificant damage to most of the fa-cility equipment including four ABBRCS systems.

In recognition of the goodservice and reliable per-formance that ABB RCSwas providing, USPSwent ahead with the pro-curement of additionalsystems from ABB.

ABB was subsequently contracted bythe USPS to perform complete over-hauls on these systems. ABB techni-cians dismantled the RCS equipmentand replaced or reconditioned dam-aged components returning the sys-tems to as-new condition.

On another front, the USPS deter-mined that some of the RCS systemswere deployed at locations that werenot able to fully utilize their produc-tivity. Consequently, the USPS ap-proached ABB to relocate RCS systemsfrom Harrisburg, PA and Toledo, OHto Columbus, OH (to coincide withthe new Columbus plant opening) and

later from Edison, NJ to the JFK Air-mail Facility and from Kearny, NJ toBrooklyn, NY. Relocating these sys-tems provided a valuable service tothe USPS.

In recognition of the good service andreliable performance that ABB RCSwas providing, USPS went ahead withthe procurement of additional systemsfrom ABB.

The RCS-II (as the Phase II system iscalled) offers an improved computerand software suite, a next generationbarcode scanner, and a number ofmodifications to the deployment andsupport services tailored to USPS re-quirements. Production of the firstPhase II system is scheduled forMarch 2005 with delivery of the sys-tems to commence in June 2005 andfinish in the Fall of 2006.

Jerry L. Osborn, Erwin C. Dimalanta

ABB Flexible Automation

Auburn Hills, MI, USA

[email protected],

[email protected]

References:

Post-haste, Bruce A. Meyer, ABB Review 2002/2

pp 48–51.


ufacture of several RCS components.In early 2002, the USPS requested thatABB Customer Service provide thefirst in a long list of after-sales sup-port services which ultimately grew toinclude:1. Software upgrades to accommodate

new USPS bar code configurations.2. Design of a solution to improve

barcode reading accuracy in selectedfacilities.

3. Numerous maintenance upgradesand services including overhaul offour systems (see below) and relo-cating of two other systems.

4. Design and production of retrofit kitsto improve automatic lubrication ofthe RCS.

Mail Order

Picking pizza pickerABB FlexPicker robots demonstrate their speed and agility packing pizzasHenrik J. Andersson

A good pizza maker is hard to find. He or she has to know how to preparethe dough, how long to let it rise, howto shape it without patting, how tochoose the proper accoutrements(tomatoes, mozzarella, etc.) and final-ly how to cook it, according to tradi-tion, in a wood-burning oven.

While an expert pizzaiolo might pre-pare a pizza in a few minutes, an in-dustrial pizza machine must turn outhundreds of pizzas in the same timeframe. No one would claim that frozenpizza tastes the same as that pre-pared fresh in a brick oven, but frozenpizza can bring an Italian aura and agood deal of nutrition to people whowant the taste of Italy without anauthentic pizzeria nearby.


For an industrial pizza producer, mak-ing the pizza is only the first part ofthe problem. It must be frozen, sort-ed, wrapped and packaged in accor-dance with regulations for freshnessand hygiene, and must not lose itsattractiveness during this process. Forexample, if the pizza starts out round,it should still look round when itarrives in the customer’s kitchen. If cheese has been sprinkled on top, it should still be there when the cus-tomer opens the package . . . and notbe left behind on the factory floor.

The challengeLast year Italian system integrator Vor-tex, was asked by Panidea, a pizzaproducer in Italy to design an auto-mated packaging system for frozenpizzas. Pizzas coming from a freezerwere to be loaded into a flow-packmachine before going to the cartoningmachine. The major challenge was tohandle four different products – trian-gular, circular and oval shaped pizzas.Furthermore, the customer wanted afully flexible and scaleable system,where new products (new shapes,sizes, types) could be introduced andthe capacity increased over time.

A specific challenge with pizzas lies inthe fact that they are not collatedneatly on the line and may not beperfectly uniform in shape. The pizzasalso must be handled delicately withthe gripper: there may be cheese or

other items on top of the pizza andthese can’t be lost in the trip from lineto the package.

Looking at the requirements of thepizza packaging system, Italian systemintegrator Vortex Systems concludedthat this total flexibility in combina-tion with high capacity could only beachieved with ABB’s FlexPicker andits PickMaster software for visionguidance.

The FlexPicker can pickand place while theproduct is moving on thebelt.

The FlexPicker and PickMaster technologyThe FlexPicker is a parallel kine-matics robot which offers a great com-bination of speed and flexibility. Withpicking rates exceeding 120 items perminute, the products can be pickedand placed one by one. Since all themotors and gears are fixed on thebase of the robot, the mass of themoving arms is limited to a few kg.This means that accelerations above10g can be achieved.

The FlexPicker has a hygienic designwith no painted surfaces. Fulfillingingress protection norm IP67 it can bewashed with low-pressure water anddetergents. These features make it

1

ideal for packaging of open food. Thefact that the robot is top-mountedmeans it doesn’t restrict access to therobot line, a feature that is appreciat-ed by operators and maintenancepersonnel.

The FlexPicker is powered by theIRC5 controller (previously byS4Cplus) which allows for conveyortracking functionality. This means thatthe FlexPicker can pick and placewhile the product is moving on thebelt. This is necessary in order not tolose valuable time starting and stop-ping the conveyor.

The PickMaster gives eyes to the ro-bots . The products are normallyarranged randomly on a conveyor beltand the robots need to know their lo-cation to pick them up. PickMaster isa PC software package incorporating aCognex vision system. Furthermore,PickMaster makes the programming ofmultiple robots (up to eight), camerasand conveyor belts an easy task, evenfor a not very experienced robot pro-grammer.

The ABB – Vortex partnershipVortex Systems was founded in 1987.At that time in Italy, robots were usedfor automotive production lines, notfor food. But through a series ofencounters, Vortex Systems was con-fronted with the problem of designingmachinery for packaging ice cream

2


Picking Pizza Pickers

The Pickmaster software enables robots to pick items from a moving conveyor with total accuracy.

2The Flexpicker robot achieves accelerationsof 10g and handles up to 120 items/minute.

1



cones. The opportunity came aboutby chance, but Vortex Systems devot-ed itself to the challenge of packagingfrozen foods.

Vortex already made its own “robots”but the processing of frozen productsrequires more manipulation of theproduct while on the production line.At the same time, these productscome in a variety of shapes, and theseshapes may change every few months,according to consumer tastes. Vortexengineers decided that for this specialapplication they needed, togetherwith a vision system able to “see” theproducts coming down the line, amore sophisticated and fast roboticsystem that has at least four axes ofmovement to provide sufficient flexi-bility in their solution.

Vortex decided to enter the frozenfood market because they had somenew solutions for this industry,despite it being a complex marketdemanding great flexibility and highhygiene standards.”

In 2003, the company began experi-menting with the packaging of frozenproducts and ABB became involved.In the beginning of the project, ABBmade the FlexPicker available to Vor-tex and supported Vortex with train-ing and support. ABB also providedVortex a sample robot to work with,learn about and experiment on. Vor-tex tested and evaluated it and devel-oped several potential applicationswith innovative features and advan-tages compared to other solutions onthe market

The partnership with ABB and theFlexPicker product has enabled Vortexto compete with much larger Germanand Swiss competitors. This has con-tributed to Vortex’s growth and giventhe company a better presence inter-nationally.

This was the beginning of the verysuccessful partnership between ABBand Vortex, resulting in this pizza-packaging project and other excitingbusiness opportunities. ABB has therobot and the software and Vortex(and the CT group) the experience inbuilding turnkey solutions for thefrozen food industry.

The solutionThe loading system contains two Flex-Picker robots and a PickMaster with

one camera each. Should Panideawish to upgrade the capacity of thesystem, the layout has room for athird robot at the end of the line. Thispizza loading system is the first of itskind in Italy.

A key to the success has been thegripper design. Although single grip-pers are simpler and cheaper thanmulti-grippers, the high capacity andproduct variation makes grippingtechnology very important. In thisproject, there are two types of grip-pers depending on product type. Afinger like gripper is used for someformats while others are handled witha faster vacuum gripper.

The flexibility is veryvaluable to the customer.Since four differentproducts are producedand packaged at thesame line, the optimal mix of products can beproduced depending onconsumer demand.

Each robot has a capacity of 60–80pizzas per minute depending on thetype of gripper being used, vacuumgripper being the faster technology.If a third robot is added to the line,the maximum capacity of the systemwill be 240 pizza portions per minute.

The cameras and the Cognex visionsystem locate the pizzas and feed thepositions to the robot controller. Theproducts don’t have to be guided orpre-arranged by traditional hard-au-tomation, which would have beenvery difficult for pizzas. On the con-trary, they can be fed on normal flatconveyor belt for all product variants.The FlexPicker robots and vision sys-tem take care of the rest. The result isa cleaner robot-based system with lessmechanical peripherals .

The flexibility is very valuable to thecustomer. Since four different prod-ucts are produced and packaged atthe same line, the optimal mix ofproducts can be produced dependingon consumer demand. The time forchange-over between different batch-es reduces down-time and loss of pro-duction, since only the gripper need

3

to be changed valuable productiontime. Also the system scalability, to beable to add one robot is a valuableoption in case of high market de-mands for the delicious pizzas.

Since the system packages open food,the system is mainly designed in stain-less steel according to wash-downstandard, a very important require-ments in food production.

Customer confidenceAccording to personnel at Panidea,the FlexPicker system installationwent very smoothly and took sometwo weeks. The reliability has beenvery good since the installation inMarch 2004. According to Panidea en-gineers, this is probably the only wayto automate this application with sucha great combination of flexibility andspeed. For example, the change offormat (to run a different pizza prod-uct) can be done very quickly by theoperator. The only equally flexible

Picking pizzas from a moving conveyor belt.One wrong move and all the accoutrementsare spilt onto the factory floor.

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Today Vortex Systems is part of theCT Group. Its sister companies areCatta27: ice cream process, Otem:flowpack machines and Mopa:feeding systems. Together with Vor-tex, this group represents a globalplayer in providing integrated solu-tions to different packaging andprocess needs. Vortex is located inFossalta, near Ferrara in NorthernItaly, where the traditions of ma-chine making are almost as deeplyrooted as those of cooking.

Vortex Systems

alternative to the FlexPickers, wouldhave been a manual labour basedsolution.

The Picking Pizza Picker installation is an excellent example of how stan-dard robots and application softwareresult in short pay-back for a foodproducer. And Panidea plan to contin-ue the expansion of the concept: Thefuture plans for the line is to add onemore flow-packer and another Flex-Picker to the line .

Robots in packagingDuring the past ten years, the use ofrobotics in the area of food packagingincreased, and new exciting applica-tions have come up frequently. Thestandard uses for robots in the foodmanufacturing environment are inpackaging – such as for top loadingwrapped articles into cartons, or case-packing, and palletizing, as well ashigh-speed pick and place applica-tions – and will continue to grow.Robots have become simpler to use,cost less and the technology hasevolved to apply to a much widerrange of applications today. Fromdecorating machines and extremelyreliable quality control functions inthe process area, to counter moldfeeding into wrappers and mold stack-ing/retrieval systems, robots are show-ing up everywhere.

Developments in special end-of-arm-tooling, vision technology and thecontroller technology expand thethings that robots can do . Not onlyhas robotics become accepted, butgiven the real world of operating cost

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pressures, it’s a must that manufactur-ers at least know enough about what’sout there to decide if it makes sensefor their needs. If they are not alreadyusing some kind of robotics in theirfactory, they probably ought to belearning all they can about them andlooking for opportunities to use themas part of their company’s manufactur-ing strategy.

Those manufacturers,who have been quick toadopt and install newpackaging systems, arestealing an edge over their rivals.

Until now, wrapping a new producthas been a real challenge for thepackaging industry. Whereas humansare able to quickly adapt to pack dif-ferent products, building robots withthe same flexibility is another matter.Until recently, modifying machinery to package different products was toogreat a challenge. Now, those manu-facturers, who have been quick toadopt and install new packaging sys-tems, are stealing an edge over theirrivals. This is brought about by spe-cially designed machinery and soft-ware developments. Good packagingcompanies also provide training tomake adoption of new technologystraightforward and trouble free.Changeover is especially quick andconvenient when the entire packagingprocess comprises one integratedsystem.

The deployment of robots in packag-ing lines is an area where technologyis quickening the pace and makinghuman hands redundant. Also, unlikehumans, robots do not suffer fromrepetitive strain, fatigue, boredom orany of the related illnesses or condi-tions these provoke. Establishing theneed for robots in packaging lines,however, requires consideration. First,the investment needs to be cost justi-fied, and then the system must bemodelled to make the most of thecapabilities of robots.

Indeed, robots often replace humanworkers, which is why their accept-ance is often a subject of negotiation.However, robots do present a strongcase of their own and this is why weare seeing more and more getting towork in food industry. Incidences ofstrain industries and lost time in thebaking industry are a motivator formany companies to seriously considerthe role of the robot. As the USA, UK,and elsewhere in Europe becomemore litigious, the costs against claimsagainst businesses from workers suf-fering workplace related injuries willrise.


Henrik J. Andersson

ABB Automation Technologies

Västerås, Sweden

[email protected]



The loading system with two FlexPicker robots.4 The right gripper for a delicate job.5

Gestamp Automocion is a specialist inautomation of press body shops forautomotive industries and a long-standing customer of ABB robots.

In early 2003, Gestamp contacted ABBexplaining that they needed improvedshelf mounted robots with a betterpayload and working range.

The time frame for development wasvery tight but made possible by therecently introduced new large robotplatform. This had been launched theprevious year and provided a solidbasis for further development basedon a modular and well thought outconcept.

Gestamp – A world-leading supplier ofautomotive componentsGestamp is an industrial group pro-ducing components for the automo-

What is a shelf robot?The term “shelf robot” is somewhatmisleading. It would be more preciseto speak of shelf mounted robots;they are designed to be placed on apedestal or machine at a distancefrom the floor .

Because the robot is placed at a higher“level” than other robots, its workingrange must extend further down. Therobot’s working range is tilted forwardsand downwards. This is made possibleby a different frame (the part of therobot holding the lower arm).

The IRB 6650S features a larger work-ing envelope and a stronger wrist thanits competitors. The strong wrist givesthe robot a capability to not only han-dle heavy workpieces, but also to doso with a high moment of inertia. Incombination with its high agility, thisleads to an exemplary flexibility.

The IRB 6650S is based on the highlymodular IRB 6600 family. This meansit was possible to develop the newshelf robot to an excellent quality in avery short time. Another advantage ofthis approach is that options availablefor the IRB 6600 family will also fitthe new shelf robot (service tools willbe the same etc).

Joint development between ABB andGestampABB always appreciates the collabora-tion of a competent and highly com-petitive customer when developing

1

tive industry such as doors, hoods,panels, covers, supports etc. Most ofthese parts are manufactured frommetal sheets in press shops. Themethods used vary, but include pressstamping, hydro forming, welding andcoating.

The head office of Gestamp is inSpain, with plants located in Mexico,South America and Europe. GestampAutomocion has more than 7000employees and a turnover of over1100 million Euros.

Customers include Peugeot, Citroën,Ford, Mazda, Fiat, Suzuki, GM, Daim-ler Chrysler, Renault, Nissan and VW-group. For over ten years, Gestamphas been an important customer ofABB robots, and often made impor-tant contribution to the developmentof new robots.


A shelf robot’s working envelope includes alarge area below its pedestal.

1 An IRB 6650S at work at Gestamp’s Pueblaplant in Mexico.

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When a customer needs a powerful and agile robot in a very short time and noexisting product covers the niche, the chances of success may seem slim. But if

the supplier is well-prepared and has a strong modular platform to develop from, thenthe situation is totally different.

In close cooperation with Gestamp Automocion, ABB was able to develop a new shelf robot in underseven months. The IRB 6650S is handling the customer’s tough requirements with ease – these translate into an enlargedworking range, an increased handling capacity and a high moment of inertia – all factors which increase the productivity of the customer’s lines.

Shelf lifeThe development of the IRB 6650Sshelf robot – a successful cooperationbetween supplier and customerOla Svanström

new products. The risk of missing cer-tain customer features caused by de-veloping mainly with a single customeris in many cases outweighed by theadvantage of not having an over-speci-fied product. In this case Gestamp wasan ideal partner as a frontline companyin the press tending business.

What Gestamp needed in comparisonto previous robot models, was a work-ing range that was much larger in thearea below the robot , and an in-creased handling capacity. The highmoment of inertia handling ability wasespecially appreciated.

The biggest challenge during the de-velopment of IRB 6650S was obtainingthe correct working range and adher-ing to the time schedule. As men-tioned above, one fundamental contri-bution to keeping the schedule wasthe highly modular IRB 6600 productplatform . Although few parts of therobot had to be changed, completelynew product characteristics wereachieved. In fact, designing the newparts only took about two months.

New concepts for cutting lead-timefrom suppliers were also needed tomeet the Gestamp delivery demands.Design engineers worked in closecooperation with suppliers and theirproduction technology to reduce de-livery times. Acceptance test sampleswere delivered to ABB by airfreight.

To achieve the large working range ofthe robots, the lower arm needed anew counter-balancing system. A newbalancing cylinder with high balanc-ing force and a long stroke was devel-oped.

First installations at GestampThe development and delivery of thenew shelf-mounted IRB 6650S robot

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was motivated by Gestamp’s aim torun more than 200 references (ie, dif-ferent press tool geometries) in onepress line. This meant that besidescycle time, the production changetime, the ability to keep a steadyparts flow and the easy access formaintenance and operators were keyfactors.

For this purpose, Gestamp and ABBSpain jointly developed a standard forGestamp’s lines: The Shelf mountedrobots had proven to have advantagesover floor-mounted robots for medi-um and large parts.

In May 2003, representatives ofGestamp including the project leadersfor the Gestamp Puebla project devel-opment in Mexico , agreed to thedelivery of the first 8 units of the IRB 6650S for this project.

The very first unit was sent to ABBSpain outside Barcelona just beforeChristmas 2003 for Gestamp techni-cians to give ABB their immediatefeedback. Gestamp pointed out thatthe new IRB 6650S had a workingenvelope below the robot itself likeno other robot. This opened up pos-sibilities for tool changing below the robot that had previously notexisted.

The other 8 units were shipped inFebruary to May 2004, just in time forthe equipping of the new plant inMexico. The robots worked asGestamp had expected.

Thanks to the on-time launch of theIRB 6650S robot, ABB has receivedadditional orders from Gestamp forLaser Welding at Puebla in Mexico, fortwo Gestamp press line systems inPoland and another press line systemin Hungary.

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Other applications for IRB 6650S The shelf robots open up new possi-bilities for the plastics industry. Un-loading of injection-moulding ma-chines is one interesting application.Such robots have several advantagesover traditional robots for customers:

The cycle time can be reduced be-cause the shelf robot can unload theinjection-moulding machine fromabove instead of from the side. Thismeans the robot has a shorter dis-tance to move, and also that the safe-ty doors of the machine do not haveto open and close during every cycle.Less floor space is required for theserobots because they can be mountedon top of the injection-mouldingmachine or on a pedestal beside themachine.

If the robot is placed on a pedestal,the robot and the injection-mouldingmachine are not mechanically cou-pled, leading to better process result.

These same benefits are also applica-ble in die-casting setups. In this case,the robot has better corrosion protec-tion for the harsh environment.

Another application where IRB 6650Shas proven its record is in power trainassembly in the automotive industry.In this case the robot can replace in-verted mounted robots (hanging up-side down). Again, the IRB 6650S’sadvantage is its large working rangeand lower cost.


Ola Svanström


Västerås, Sweden

[email protected]

Shelf life

The IRB 6650S robot (right) is based closely on the IRB 6650 floormounted model (left). This use of an existing modular platform madethe extremely short development time possible.

3 The press line at Gestamp’s Puebla Plant.4

Quick paybackfor(e)castInvesting in robotized investment casting ensures quick payback Claudia Berg

The foundry industry is enjoyingsteady growth. Investment castingcompanies are no exception. In thisclimate, investing in higher productiv-ity has a short payback, as the recentexperience of TPC Components ofSweden illustrates.

At TPC Components, the process ofmanufacturing high quality shells hadalready been robotised for someyears. However, with the introductionof ABB's long-reach, high-payloadIRB 7600, it became possible to in-crease output by an additional 30%.Ongoing optimization of the installa-tion will improve results even further.

Growth rate in the investment castingbusiness reaches a healthy 6–10% peryear, and customers in the automo-bile, aerospace, gas turbine, food,medical and process industries arebuying more and more componentsmade with the lost wax method.

The method is primarily used for com-plex and intricate shapes. They are

initially formed with wax, which isthen coated with ceramic. The wax ismelted and drains away (hence thename – lost wax method) leaving amould into which metals can bepoured .

There are a number of reasons whythis method has become so popular: Itis possible to manufacture complex

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parts close to their final shape, reduc-ing time-consuming and costly postprocessing to a minimum. The partcan also be produced in a wide varietyof materials. The designers can there-fore optimise part characteristics. Thehigh precision of the lost wax methodresults in a very high quality castingwith an excellent surface finish.

The high part quality, combined witha large degree of freedom regardingdesign and material choice, makeinvestment casting an increasinglyattractive option.

Automation trendInvestment casting is still a labour in-tensive industry. Production runs areoften short, and even large batchesrequire the flexibility and precision of


Robot arm holding a waxform tree.1

Bertil Bredin General Manager of TPC Hallstahammar Sweden.

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ers at volumes of up to 250,000 partsper year. The ceramic shell makingprocess is practically completely auto-mated. An old hydraulic Unimate ro-bot previously produced the largeshells. Because of its outstandingreach and large handling capacity, itwas retained in use for many years.Only recently was it replaced it withABB’s new IRB 7600 long-arm ver-sion, which features a reach of 3.5mand a handling capacity of 150kg.Thanks to these characteristics, it waspossible to introduce the new robotinto the existing production line with-out making any changes to the ma-chinery. Only minor changes of thecontrol system were necessary. Thenew robot reduces cycle time, allow-ing the robot cell to handle moreparts per unit of time .

“The number of manual operationsare reduced and final output has sofar increased from 1400 trees per dayto 1800. When the production cycle isoptimised, we plan to produce ap-proximately 2300 trees per day”, says

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Jan Johansson, Manager Shell Depart-ment, at TPC Components. When MrJohansson reaches his goal, the pro-ductivity boost will reach almost 65%– an excellent performance by anystandard!

It was possible to intro-duce the new robot intothe existing productionline without making anychanges to the machinery.

Quick paybackABB’s IRB 7600 was selected for anumber of reasons. Foremost were thelong reach and high payload forwhich this type of robot is designed.The Foundry plus protection ABBoffers with this robot provides IP67tightness (prevents explosive andalcohol-based slurries from enteringthe machine) .

Both technically and economically,the IRB 7600 is a success.

“Our investment in new automationwas basically limited to the robot it-self, since we could introduce it with-out rebuilding the production line.Because of that, pay-back time is notmuch more than a year and a half,”concludes Mr Johansson.

Because of a forward looking man-agement the TPC plant is now wellprepared to take advantage of thesteady growth the market currentlyprovides. Investing in investment cast-ing clearly has a favourable paybackperiod right now.

For more information on investment casting

automation, visit www.abb.com/robotics

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skilled workers to achieve the highcasting quality that customers de-mand. However, there is a definite au-tomation trend. Shell making, wherethe wax trees are dipped in an alco-hol or water based slurry and wherethe ceramic shells are continuouslybuilt using special sand is often robo-tised . Robots are also used for postprocessing applications, such asgrinding and polishing of the castpart.

Progressive companies are now look-ing at automating the wax tree mount-ing area of the shop floor. “Globalcompetition drives us to keep lookingfor automation possibilities to increaseour productivity”, says Bertil Bredin,CEO of TPC Components in Hallsta-hammar, Sweden . “Quality controlusing vision systems is just one exam-ple of this trend”.

IRB 7600 helps increase outputTPC Components produces some 1000different articles every year – some invery small, prototype series and oth-

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Claudia Berg


Västeras, Sweden

[email protected]

Quick payback for(e)cast

Robot IRB 7600 with long arm placing forms for drying.3

Robot holding form in sand.4 Robot dipping in liquid.5

The die is castZinc die caster opts for robot-based automationDavid Marshall, Nigel Richardson, Chris Miles

The South Yorkshire based PMS Diecasting is a small but highly dynamiccompany. It has positioned itself at the forefront of its field by adopting thelatest techniques.


High volume zinc diecasting manufac-turer PMS Diecasting, based in Rother-ham, South Yorkshire, has automatedpart of its plant by installing an ABBIRB 140 FoundryPlus six-axis robot, totend a Frech DAW 20 RC real timecontrol, zinc diecasting machine.

The installation, carried out by robot in-tegration experts Geku Industrial Au-tomation Systems, is unusual in that theABB robot is tending a relatively small(20 tonne) machine, while the Frech, us-ing real time control (RC), is one of onlyfour such machines operating in the UK.

The cell was the brainchild of PMSDirector Gordon Panter, who realisedthat a fully automated facility couldbring significant productivity and costbenefits, particularly when applied toa new contract awarded by wire ropecomponent manufacturer, Sheffield-based Gripple.

The robot cycle is short and relativelysimple, with little scope at present foradding extra downstream tasks. TheIRB 140 FoundryPlus robot picks upthe casting assembly from the Frechdiecasting machine using specially

designed pneumatic grippers, andtransfers it to a part separation station.A pneumatic press then separates in-dividual castings from the runner. Therobot directs the runner to a chute forreprocessing before returning to thestarting position for the next cycle.

Installed in the summer, the PMS in-vestment appears to be completelyjustified, with the automated cell in-creasing manufacturing efficiency andreducing costs. Benefits include: totalreliability in a harsh environment; re-lease of skilled manpower; maximised

sure steam cleaning and liquid im-pacts up to 25 bar, even complete im-mersion in water for short periods. Inaddition, each robot is treated withtough, two-component epoxy coatingsto prevent corrosion.

Richardson comments: “As well asoperating in a relatively harsh envi-ronment, the cell needed to be bothspace saving and portable, so the IRB 140 FoundryPlus with its compactdimensions was ideal for the PMSoperation.”

“To achieve portability, we mountedthe cell on castors – so it is highlytransportable and can be moved awayin seconds for access to the Frech fortool changes and servicing. Interfacingthe DAW-20 diecasting machine to theIRB 140 robot was also a relativelysimple task, as Geku engineers have awealth of experience with both Frechand ABB systems,” he adds.

Commenting on the impact of theGeku/ABB automated cell on PMSDiecasting, Gordon Panter says: “Weare a relatively small business and tobe highly competitive we must also be highly efficient. This means thatevery square foot of workspace needsto be utilised and every employee 100 percent effective. To these ends,

the Geku-designed cell has had amost significant effect. It is very com-pact and highly efficient, scrap is re-processed immediately – rather thanbeing allowed to build up in bulkyskips – and an arduous, boring andlabour intensive task has been fullyautomated, allowing staff to use theirskills on much more challenging andfulfilling operations.”

He adds: “The introduction of full‘lights-out’ operation is the next mile-stone and a significant developmentfor the future success of our business.”


David Marshall

ABB Automation Technologies Division

Milton Keynes, UK

[email protected]

Nigel Richardson

Geku Industrial Robot Systems

Chatham, Kent, UK

[email protected]

www.geku.co.uk

Chris Miles

FMPR

Keighley, West Yorkshire, UK

[email protected]

space; improved quality and accuracyof castings; and a complete “closedloop” for zinc waste.

Plans are in place for Geku to installan automatic feed for zinc ingots, sothat a total “lights-out” operation canbe established.

Gordon Panter has previous experi-ence in the plastic injection mouldingindustry, where automated productionis commonplace. When he decided toautomate, an ABB robot and Frechdiecasting machine were the firstitems on his acquisition list.

“The efficiency of our operation isachieved by eliminating variables,wherever possible. I felt that by buy-ing the most efficient and reliablebrands of robot and diecasting ma-chine, a considerable number of vari-ables would be totally eliminated,”says Panter.

Having decided on an ABB robot, theIRB 140 FoundryPlus robot was speci-fied after consultation with NigelRichardson, Joint Managing Directorof ABB preferred partner Geku.

The IRB 140 robot is ideal for harshenvironments and features full IP67-classified seals, which withstand pres-

TeachSaver – a time saverAn innovative programming tool opens great new applications for roboticsPer Åström

The foundry-casting process is notalways as perfect as many peopleimagine. Casting leaves excess mate-rial known as burrs and flashes andthis must be cleaned away before thepart can be used as intended. Thedeburring and de-flashing process isdirty, noisy and hazardous. Addition-ally, scrap rates are high and qualityinconsistent. It might seem that thestage is set for the entry of robots . . .

Even so, some 80% of foundry clean-ing work is still performed manually.The principle barrier to robotization is not the complexity of the task itself,but lies in the programming of the ro-bots. Such programming is time-con-suming. With many production batch-es being small, this leads to excessivedown time of the costly equipment.All this is set to change with ABB’snew TeachSaver.

This product, an add-in to RobotStu-dio, brings with it an array of wel-come benefits to foundries across theworld.

The use of TeachSaver slashes pro-gramming time by up to 90%. In ad-dition, it offers better quality productsthanks to more accurate calibrationand processing methods. Repeatabili-ty is a further bonus as well as dra-matic timesavings throughout the lifecycle of the work cell. And, as pro-gramming is carried out off-line, thereis never any need to disturb produc-tion.

A Time SaverFor decades, the foundry industry hasbeen searching for effective, prof-itable ways to automate its cleaning

operations. The programming timeand the fact that the production has to be stopped during the program-ming is one of the biggest obstacles to a more expansive use of robots andhas also restricted automation to onlythe largest batches. With TeachSaver,robots can be programmed off-lineand time cut dramatically – fromweeks to hours. This opens up newpossibilities for the automated clean-ing of smaller batches and complexparts with a high cleaning content.

The use of TeachSaver Step-by-Step Process path programmingThe process path is created with adigital arm or by using a CAD modelin RobotStudio. This ensures quickand easy generation of hundreds ofrobot positions. Guidelines assist theuser during programming.

Process path generation, simulation andmodificationWith TeachSaver it is very easy togenerate and simulate process paths,optimize programs, estimate cycletimes and eliminate potential colli-sions. The final result is a robot pro-gram that is ready for production –including all customer specific proce-dures.

CalibrationTeachSaver provides high-accuracymethods for calibration of the toolsand of the relation between the robotand the workpiece. This is automati-cally handled in TeachSaver and theresults can be repeated time after time.

Process fine-tuneThe process program runs in the robotcontroller, and if necessary, the posi-tions are fine-tuned. Robot paths arerecalcualted automatically according tothe changes.

Duplication of cell programsDuplications of robot programs be-tween robot cells are simple and fast toachieve with TeachSaver. Together withthe automatic calibration methods, thisensures identical results in all robotcells; several work cells can be madeready for production in less than a day.


Per Åström

ABB Automation TechnologiesVästerås, [email protected]

Reference:

See also “Virtual and real” on pp 62–64.


More colors, less waste

ABB Cartridge Paint System:Cutting Costs and Reducing Environmental ImpactOsamu Yoshida

How many different colors should an automaker offer its customers? A famous pioneersupposedly said, "You can have it in whatever color you want so long as it’s black”. Today,however, it goes without saying that automakers seek to improve their market position byoffering customers as many choices as possible.

But how many choices are possible? Diversity is largely limited by production line logistics.Until now, to change color, the painting apparatus of a robot had to be thoroughly cleaned.This wastes paint and solvent, adds to pollution and costs time and money. All good reasonsnot to change color more often than is absolutely necessary.

But imagine being able to switch color without losing paint or time, and while reducingsolvent waste by more than a factor of ten. With ABB’s innovative cartridge bell system, thisvision becomes reality.




When a modern car gets into a fend-er-bender, it’s increasingly unlikelythat the local body shop will bang thebumper back into shape. Neither willthe manufacturer pull a spare out ofstock; instead a whole new bumpermodule will be built specifically tomeet the individual need.

This saves on inventory costs, but itmakes the paint operations at au-tomakers and their subsidiary suppli-ers far more complex; not only dothey need to paint bumpers for cur-rent-model cars, but must also be ableto paint small lots of replacementparts for older models.

During the normal production run ofa car model, some ten colors are re-quired. For a bumper line, however,that number can often be as high as50 or 60, and consequently the num-ber of units painted in any one coloris limited. Even so, an entire paintline has to be operated to ensure thesame quality as the original product.

Whether using hand spray guns or ro-bots, long paint supply lines and atom-izers must be thoroughly cleaned withsolvent between each paint change.Both paint and solvent are wasted, in-creasing costs and causing negative im-pact on the environment (particularlysolvents, which contain volatile organiccompounds, or VOCs, which are a seri-ous source of pollution). Not the mostefficient way to produce bumpers – orany other painted product requiringdifferent paint colors.

The solution came out of an internalbrainstorming session. ABB thought

that having a traditional paint linewith many different paint tanks andall the lines and hoses needed topaint just a few bumpers was a terri-ble waste not only of paint and sol-vent, but also of time, labor and mon-ey. Why not move the paint tank tothe end of the robot arm itself? Thetotal amount of paint needed didn’thave to be too much, only 350 to 500 ml, so if a way could be found toput a small tank – a cartridge – on therobot, only the atomizer itself wouldhave to be cleaned with solvent. Eachcartridge could be dedicated to onecolor, so keeping cleaning to a mini-mum.

As carmakers struggle to position themselves in a highly competitiveglobal market, offeringconsumers a greaterchoice in color andfeatures is one way to set themselves apart.

Working closely with a major Japan-ese automaker, ABB began to pursuethe idea – applying it not only tobumpers. As carmakers struggle to po-sition themselves in a highly competi-tive global market, offering consumersa greater choice in color and featuresis one way to set themselves apart.

At the same time, the cartridge con-cept promised to reduce VOC (volatileorganic compounds) emissions andpaint waste, an important considera-

tion in a time of increased environ-mental awareness and tighter legisla-tion. ABB thought the concept mightalso increase the total efficiency ofautomotive paint operations. They seta number of goals for the project.One was to practically eliminate paintand solvent loss caused by paintchange. The other was to reducematerial loss at color change fromapproximately 120 ml of solvent and32 ml of paint to just 10 ml of solvent:the amount needed to clean the bellcup.

There were several initial technicalhurdles that had to be overcome. Firstwas that the time for a cartridgechange had to be 10 seconds or less.If this could not be achieved, paintingoperations would have to slow down– not an option for automakers!

Next was the question of how to holdthe cartridge in place in the robotarm. Vacuum pressure was the obvi-ous answer, but it had to be verycarefully controlled.

To increase coating efficiency and re-duce paint loss, paint robots use elec-trostatic painting. In traditional handpainting, only a small part of the paintactually adheres to the body – oftenas little as 20%. ABB is the inventorof, and world leader in electrostaticpainting. This technique greatly in-creases the transfer efficiency of thepainting process. A negative electricalcharge is applied to the paint dropletsas they emerge from the atomizer; thecar body has a positive charge. Theresult is that the paint is not simplysprayed onto the car body, but is ac-

A paint robot changing its cartridge in the manipulator. The empty cartridge is automatically refilled.

2ABB’s cartridge bell system (CBS). The proximity of the paint to thebell cup minimizes paint and solvent loss when the color is changed.

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atomizer paint cartridge

solvent

piston

server motor

cylinder

solvent delivery line

bell cup

tually attracted to it electrically. Themajor issue raised by this method issparking. A spark can easily ignite theflammable mixture of vaporized paintand solvent and air. The developershad to find the ideal pressure to holdthe cartridge in the robot arm. Toomuch of a vacuum would have led tosparking.

As these hurdles were cleared, aworking concept began to develop. A conventional robot painting systemsinvolves large tanks for the main col-or, smaller tanks for special colors, atank for solvent, paint supply linesleading to a Color Change Valve unit(CCV), and a Flushable Gear Pumpunit (FGP) mounted on the robot toregulate paint flow. They all have tobe cleaned for paint changes. In thenew concept the robot was to beseparated from the paint delivery sys-tem. There would still be paint andsolvent tanks, albeit much smaller andfor special colors. These would feed

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to a cartridge handling unit, where thepaint would be filled into the car-tridges. Each cartridge would containa piston driven by solvent to force out the paint as painting progressed.A full cartridge would contain onlypaint below the piston, and no sol-vent; as solvent was pumped into thecartridge, the paint would be drivenout, until the piston was fully extend-ed with only solvent above it. Therobot required only a solvent-feelingline; all other lines would be single-usage and lead only to the cartridgestation. A surprisingly simple andstraightforward idea! At least, as aninitial concept.

The cartridge change time require-ment made the supply and the re-moval of solvent in the cartridge animportant issue to overcome. Whatwas desired was an almost instanta-neous and constant delivery of solventto the cartridge, resulting in a similar-ly constant and smooth delivery of

paint, with both varying by less than±10ml during the painting operation.

The solution was fairly straightfor-ward, involving the addition of a thirdvalve to the solvent control unit andmodifying the shape of the cylinderhead inside the cartridge. The resultwas flow of both solvent and paintfrom stop to full flow in less than 0.2 seconds, with flow that varied by only ± 3ml – far below the targetfigure. This was better than the devel-oper team expected, and it reallymade the system very attractive forthe market.

First realized in the late 1990s, thesystem – now called the Cartridge BellSystem (CBS) – is being applied onautomotive production lines not onlyin Japan, but also in Asia, the US andEurope. As intended, it is a stream-lined approach to painting. The ex-change unit can be flexibly adjustedwith as many colors as needed ,with two cartridges for each color(one being filled while the second isin use). When a cartridge is empty,the robot arm swings over to pick upa newly filled cartridge , set in placeby the cartridge handler and held inplace by the robot using negative airpressure.

In the meantime, the first cartridge isbeing filled. The solvent from abovethe piston is used to prepare freshpaint. When the time for a colorchange has come, only the atomizerbell is cleaned with solvent; the robotthen simply begins to work using adifferent pair of cartridges.

Significantly, this approach leads tosafer electrostatic painting, becauseonly the cartridge itself needs to becharged and isolated from ground –no small concern with a charge of 90 kV. Up to 90% of all the paint istransferred to the automobile body,hugely cutting paint losses. And small-lot paint runs are far easier to handle,and much more efficient and afford-able.

The results from a major Japaneseautomaker speak for themselves:

A 27-percent reduction in runningcosts – a savings of ¥ 3 billion/US$26 million – over the manufac-turer’s annual production of fivemillion vehicles.A 45-percent reduction in VOCemissions during painting, from

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An ABB technician inspects a CBS installation.3



65 grams to 35 grams per squaremeters.Improved productivity, with smallerruns of greater numbers of colors,and the possibility of paint-to-orderproduction.

As environmental regulations havebecome more stringent in recentyears, car manufacturers are obligedto switch to waterborne, rather thansolvent-borne, paints. Water, naturally,is the ideal solvent, non-polluting andsafe to handle. The major problem inthe use of waterborne paints comesfrom the difficulty in utilizing electro-static painting technologies. Water-borne paints are much more viscousthan solvent-based ones, making themharder to vaporize (yet, on the carbody, they also tend to remain wetand run more, since water is not asvolatile as solvent). Water is also moreelectrically conductive than solvent.The charged paint supply system mustbe isolated from the ground, resultingin a system that can be hard to main-tain and is potentially dangerous. Theresult was that electrostatic paintingwith waterborne paints was impossi-ble for many years.

To cope with this, ABB developed theCOPES-IV Bell Atomizer. A bell atom-izer has a cup shaped part, the bell,which spins rapidly, flinging the paintoff and creating a fine mist that pro-vides superior coating properties.Compressed air spins the bell andshapes the paint mist. ABB engineerssucceeded in fitting the COPES-IVwith external electrodes that indirectlycharge the paint particles, making

electrostatic painting with waterbornepaints possible. This type of atomizeris now used by European automakers,where stricter EU environmental lawssignificantly increasing the rate ofconversion to waterborne paints.

ABB engineers succeed-ed in fitting the COPES-IVwith external electrodesthat indirectly charge thepaint particles, makingelectrostatic painting with waterborne paintspossible.

ABB robotic paint solutions are con-tinuously evolving to meet marketdemands for lower investment, main-tenance and operating costs andreduced environmental impact. Onevariation of the CBS system is theFlushable Cartridge Bell System(FCBS), which provides reduced main-tenance costs. Especially when usedwith waterborne paints, where theproblems associated with cleaning bysolvent are eliminated, the systemallows the cartridge to be cleanedduring operations, cutting on routineoverhaul of the cartridges. The FCBShas been highly regarded, again par-ticularly in Europe where waterbornepaints are rapidly becoming the normin automobile production. Japaneseand Asian auto production has notbeen as swift to move to waterbornepaint, but there are plans to remedythis in the coming years. At the cut-

ting edge of paint transfer technologyis the Pattern Control (PC) bell .Automobiles and other objects to bepainted do not only consist of open,flat surfaces, but have pillars andother smaller surfaces alternating with wider spaces such as hoods anddoors. The PC bell allows for on-the-fly changes in paint spray width –narrow on a pillar and broad for thehood, for example – providing out-standing control of the amount ofpaint being applied. Combined withABB robots, this is the future of robot-ized painting guaranteeing maximumtransfer efficiency with minimumpaint consumption.

ABB Paint Technologies makes itmuch easier to be a bumper manu-facturer – or an automaker, a white-goods manufacturer or any other op-eration requiring paint color variationand greater response to individualdemands – thanks to ABB Paint Tech-nologies.

Osamu Yoshida

ABB Automation Manufacturing

Tokyo, Japan

[email protected]

4

The pattern control (PC) bell small (left) and large (right).4

Plastics made perfectABB robots are revolutionizing the manufacturing of plastics Christina Bredin

Automobile construction is increas-ingly evolving away from the all-metal approach. Progress in themanufacturing and processing ofplastics makes these new materialssuitable for more and more applica-tions previously reserved to metals.Robotics is adapting to this trend –robots are finding increased use inplastics manufacturing.

The following three examples illus-trate the success of ABB robots inthe automotive parts industry. Theserobots are employed in tasks as di-verse as injection moulding, cutting,gluing and handling. Whatever theapplication, it is not the cost savingsalone that make them attractive, butalso the repeatability and precisionwith which they tirelessly repeattheir tasks.

Teaming up with robotsHemex uses ABB robots to makeplastic parts for some of the world’sleading carmakers

Mexico’s car and auto-parts industriesare going through a lean spell. Thenation’s economy is recovering slowlyfrom a prolonged recession and con-sumer confidence has yet to gainstrength in the United States, to whichmore than half of the cars made inMexico are exported.

Yet nobody would guess those diffi-culties from the smile on the face ofRafael Lopez, technical general man-ager of the Grupo Hemex plant thatmakes headlamps at Tlanepantla onthe outskirts of Mexico City where acluster of hills puncture the urbanlandscape of a capital that is home tonearly 20 million people.

“Production has been growing at about20% a year, and is continuing to do so,”says Lopez as he looks out from his of-fice balcony at the spotless factory floorbelow. Each worker wears equally spot-less white overalls emblazoned with theblue logo of Hella, the Germany-basedparent company of Hemex.


troduce them when we launch a newline of production. Since the plantkeeps growing and we continue tohire people, fears of job loss are nev-er a problem.”

Charlie Chaplin’s “Modern Times” filmclassic posed the comic genius as afactory worker locked in a losing bat-tle with machines. Not so at Hemex. It may be going too far to speak of a love affair, but Lopez emphasises:“The workers get on well with therobots. After all, they save them fromthe boredom of meticulous but repeti-tive work.”

The plant, founded 30 years ago, has1,000 workers, with an additionalwhite-collar staff of 500, many ofwhom perform corporate duties thatcover Hemex’s other factory, whichmakes electronic auto-parts inGuadalajara, west-central Mexico.Chief engineer Eric Monroy joinedHemex five and a half years ago,shortly before the first robots arrived.“The plant then was about half thesize it is now,” he says. “The robotslook just the same as they did whenthey first came.” Still a young man, hesighs: “I’m the one who's gettingolder.”

The workers form teams of half adozen or less beneath large signs thatproclaim the models for which theyare making the parts. The signs are aroll call of auto industry leaders:BMW, General Motors, Volkswagen,Nissan, Mercedes-Benz and others.

And just as soccer squads have a starplayer, or “libero”, who provides abackbone of quality, so too do theHemex production teams. The Hemexliberos, however, are protected byglass and steel cages, for these are nothumans but robots, supplied by ABBMexico.

Why robots in Mexico? Although Mex-ican labour costs have risen in recentyears, they remain low by the stan-dards of the US and Europe. “That'snot the issue,” says Lopez. “Each ro-bot costs about $ 40,000 to $ 50,000,but we're looking for consistency andquality, and that's what the robotsoffer.”

The robots achieve a precision that nohuman can match, no matter howskilled she or he is.

“We use the robots to take pieces outof the injection moulder, and for theapplication of adhesives. The robot’saction never varies the way a human'swould. That way you get much betterquality.”

Hence the roll-call of prestige clientsthat hangs over the Hemex productionteams. And, of course, far fewer parts

have to be scrapped for failing tomeet quality standards. “Besides, withthe robots we've achieved a big re-duction in downtime,” says Lopez.

Productivity is up by about 10 to 20%.But the main reason for getting therobots was the need to improve quali-ty.

Hemex will be investingsome $150 million overthe next five years. A substantial slice of thatis likely to be spent onrobots.

In deciding on the purchase it helpedthat Lopez's boss Eckart Miessner, theHemex general director, is a formersenior executive of ABB Mexico. “Infact, I'm the man who brought therobots to Mexico”, says Miessner, whoadds that Hemex will be investingsome $ 150 million over the next fiveyears.

A substantial slice of that is likely tobe spent on yet more robots to add tothe 44 already working at the Tlane-plantla plant. Lopez reckons thatabout 10 or 12 more will be addedover the next two years. Surely theworkers must be worried about theprospect of losing their jobs?

“Not at all,” says Lopez. “The robotsnever displace workers. We only in-

A quest for perfectionAutomated and robotized productionlines manufacture fabric-covered inte-rior components at Johnson Controls.

At the Johnson Controls plant in Wup-pertal, Germany, the pillar trims forthe new Opel Astra compact car aremanufactured on fully automated, in-jection-molding production lines. Thefabric covering of the trim componentsis cut using a laser robot supplied byRobot-Technology and an ABB IRB4400 robot, which is responsible forthe ultrasonic trimming process.

The new Opel Astra is characterized byits excellent driving dynamics and pro-gressive design. But the designers of thenew generation of Astras were not onlyconcerned with the car’s external ap-pearance. Their aim was also to ensurethat the interior trim would reinforce thehigh-quality image of the Opel brand.

Opel commissioned Johnson Controls,one of the world’s leading automotiveinteriors companies, to design the in-terior of the car. Johnson Controls de-veloped the entire seating system, the

instrument panel, the roof trim andthe door and pillar trims for the Astrainterior.

Pillar trims for the new AstraThe pillar trims are injection moldedusing robot-based production lines.Neureder AG, which specializes in au-tomated systems for manufacturingplastic components, was the generalcontractor for the construction of thefour highly automated, injection-mold-ing production lines, which use an in-mold fabric backing process.


Plastics made perfect

The production lines produce the trimfor the A, B and C pillars of the three-door, five-door and estate models.The three lines, which are already involume production, are identicallyequipped, with the exception of the Apillar line, which has no laser. Thelines consist of an injection-moldingmachine, a longitudinal pick-and-place robot to load and unload themachine, an enclosed laser cuttingcell with a laser robot, a six-axis robotfor material handling, another indus-trial robot for ultrasonic trimming anda conveyor belt to remove the com-pleted trim components and wastefabric. The fourth production line,which will produce pillar-trims for theAstra also has a laser-cutting cell.

Axes 4 and 5 can rotatethrough 360 degrees. Asa result, the componentsdo not have to be rotatedor put down during thecutting process

Fully automated in-line processThe injection-molding systems sup-plied by Krauss-Maffei Kunststofftech-nik GmbH have injection-molding ma-chines with the Decoform packageuse oversize plates for back-injectingthe trim components. The productioncells use a fully automated in-lineprocess. A linear system fromWittmann, removes the plastic compo-nents from the mold and at the sametime brings the textile blanks from arack for the next molding cycle. Afterremoving the trim components fromthe mold, the pick-and-place robottakes them to the laser-cutting celland places them on a turntable fix-ture.

The turntable moves the componentsinto the cell, where they are cut by aRobocut A 300 laser robot developedby Robot-Technology GmbH. Thelaser robot is based on an ABB IRB 4400 robot. The CO2 laser has aninherently stable laser housing withaxes 4 and 5, which replace the stan-dard main axes of the robot.

Laser robot results in high processspeedsAxes 4 and 5 can rotate through 360degrees. As a result, the componentsdo not have to be rotated or putdown during the cutting process. This

which allows them to be cut at a highspeed. “The cutting operations followthe pace of the injection-molding cy-cle,” explains Reiner von Prondzinski,project manager for injection moldingat the Wuppertal plant. Other benefitsof the laser robot include high levelsof component accessibility, high ac-celeration and an integrated gas-sup-ply process.

The Robocut A 300 cuts the excessfabric off two components at once(the left-hand and right-hand pillartrims are always processed in pairs)and then cuts out the hole for the seatbelt, including the slots that will beedge-folded in the following applica-tion. “We have divided up the cuttingjobs,” says von Prondzinski. “All the

visible parts are cut ultrasonically. Theinvisible parts, which make up themajority of the B and C pillars, are cutwith lasers to better fit in with theproduction cycle.”

Production-ready precision cutting isthe decisive factorJohnson Controls has to meet highprocessing-quality standards. “Thedecisive factor is production-readyprecision cutting. The cuts on eachcomponent must be of consistentlyhigh quality,” explains Karsten Spohn,project manager at Robot-Technology.The accuracy of the robots is particu-larly important in this respect. “Theparts are fixed in place. During thelaser cutting and the ultrasonic cut-ting, the robots move the cutting



A diversity of variantsFlexible robotics help pump outbetter bumpers – a new order every90 seconds.

Bumpers have always been an impor-tant part of a car’s character -– fromthe earliest motorized carriagesthrough the heavy-metal period to thecurrent era of light, high-durabilitystructural plastics. Riding this trend to-ward less steel and more plastics,Plastal has grown to become a leadingsupplier of surface-treated, injection-molded plastic components to theEuropean automotive industry. Itsproduction plant in Gothenburg, Swe-den, sequence-delivers bumper sys-tems to Volvo Car’s adjacent factory.Every 90 seconds Plastal receives anew set of specifications for a particu-lar car. Eight hours later the complet-ed bumper is delivered – fully paintedand ready for mounting.

Plastal’s first thermoplastic prod-ucts were manufactured as earlyas 1940. Since then the companyhas evolved into a world-classsupplier of exterior and interiormodules for both trucks and cars.The factory in Gothenburg’sArendal area – previously interna-tionally recognized as a state-of-the-art shipyard building 100,000ton super tankers during the1960s – was opened in 1998when Volvo began manufacturingits S80 model there. Today, Volvodominates Arendal, and its mod-els V70, V70XC, S80 and XC90

require a daily production of approxi-mately 2,000 front and rear bumpers.The Production area stretches over20,000 square meters, has about 300staff and produces some 400 differentmodels. The bumpers are injection-

molded, masked, spray-painted, mount-ed and sequence-delivered accordingto a continuously generated scheduleprovided by an information system.

Plastal presently uses 18 ABB robots,in its Arendal plant 14 of which arepaint spray units. At the beginning of2004, two additional robots were in-stalled in a joint cell supplied by Ani-mex, the plastics automation produc-tion specialists. The larger robotserves the injection-molding machineand maneuvers the bumpers into posi-tions that allow the smaller robot toreach and trim off excess plastic.

“Previously we used dedicated single-task fixtures to trim parts after mold-ing,” says Emil Arnesson, Plastal’shead of molding production technolo-gy. “But now, with these more flexi-ble robots, it’s easy to implement pro-gram changes when a model is alteredor a new version is introduced. Plastalsaves both time and money, com-pared to buying a brand new trim-

ming fixture. Togetherwith Animex, they havecreated a team that en-sures smooth handlingof new versions as theyappear. This allowsPlastal to maintain toplevels of competenceand competitiveness.”

Christina Bredin

ABB Automation

Technologies AB

Sweden

christina.bredin @se.abb.com

components past the parts,” adds vonProndzinski.

Once the laser cutting stage is com-pleted, the parts are removed fromthe cutting cell and an ABB IRB 4400robot puts them in an ultrasonic cut-ting machine. The robot has a multi-grip, permitting it to remove wastematerial while placing the part on theconveyor belt. In the subsequent pro-duction cell, an IRB 4400 with an ul-trasonic cutting head cuts and edge-folds the trim components. The robotthen removes the finished parts and

puts them on the conveyor belt,which transports them to the finalassembly area.

High level of automationThe production-line design allowedJohnson Controls to produce ready-as-sembled parts using a fully automatedprocess in a relatively small area of itsWuppertal plant and to dispatch themwith minimal buffering. The in-lineprocess guarantees an optimumthroughput time and high cuttingquality. According to Krauss-MaffeiKunststofftechnik, the production line

has the highest level of automationcurrently available for this type ofapplication.



Every 90 seconds Plastalreceives a new set ofspecifications for a partic-ular car. Eight hours laterthe completed bumper isdelivered – fully paintedand ready for mounting.

Offline programming,online productivityThe offline programming tool RobotStudio is a worldwide successKarin Dunberg

ABB first launched RobotStudio in1998. The offline programming soft-ware rapidly spread across theworld, helping increase productivityand cut costs in a diverse range ofindustries.

RobotStudio allows robots to beprogrammed on a PC in the office.Robot programs can be prepared inadvance, increasing overall produc-

tivity by performing tasks such astraining, programming, and opti-mization without disturbing produc-tion [1].

ABB asserts that RobotStudio is theideal software for producing andoptimizing robot programs off-line.The proficiency and elegance of thissoftware is witnessed by the follow-ing customer reports:



Offline programming, online productivity

Volvo Construction Equipment (VCE)Cabs AB – SwedenVolvo Construction Equipment (VCE)Cabs AB is one of the world’s leadingmanufacturers of construction machin-ery. The company is now reaping thebenefits of using RobotStudio and itsperipherals. VCE produces cabs forconstruction machines, hydraulic andfuel tanks, car bodies and hydrauliccylinders. For Anders Nilsson , ro-bot-welding technician at VCE Cabs,the picture is clear:

“Time-consuming online programmingleads to long and costly productionstops which we simply cannot afford.Offline programming of a weld isabout 20% faster than programmingthe weld online. This may sound likea marginal saving, but consideringwhat a production hour in a weld cellcosts, the investment is recoveredafter the first project.”

Anders is an offline-programming veter-an. “We have been working with offlineprogramming since 1995. RobotStudio is used to program welds on cabs. Therobot then carries out the weld stageson the tack-welded original”.

With the RobotStudio application forwelding, RobotStudio ArcWeld Power-Pac, Anders can control gun angles,tilt and seam positions with great pre-cision.

“RobotStudio runs on ABB’s own con-trol system. This means that when Ihave produced a program that func-tions in RobotStudio, I can know with100% certainty that it will function inreality”.

Crenlo, LCC – USAAcross the North Atlantic in Minneso-ta, Crenlo, an expanding specialistmanufacturer of rollover protectioncabs for off-road construction equip-ment, was able to program its robotseven before its new plant had beencompleted!

The race began with a contract tomanufacture rollover protection cabs(ROP’s) for Caterpillar. With both ofCrenlo plants in Minnesota at full ca-pacity, it was decided to install a newline at the planned plant in Florence,South Carolina. Jeff Peterson , Cren-lo’s robot applications supervisor, un-derstood that waiting for the factoryto be completed to then program therobots online – and then adjust pe-

2

1

ripheral equipment at each work sta-tion – was a handicap the companycould ill afford.

RobotStudio enabled Peterson to notonly program the robots off-line butalso plan the set-up and productionflow before the workstations wereeven built. In fact, RobotStudioslashed setup time by 75% comparedto manual programming.

Robot programs can beprepared in advance,increasing overall pro-ductivity by performingtasks such as training,programming, andoptimization withoutdisturbing production

“Thanks to the fact that RobotStudioemploys the VirtualRobot™ Technolo-gy, incorporating the controller soft-ware from the real robot, there’s reallyno risk of error in this type of situationbecause you’re running exactly thesame machine offline in the office asonline on the shop floor”, assures Jeff.

Polynorm – HollandPolynorm in Holland is a leading tier1 supplier to the automotive industry.Polynorm’s main activities are thepressing, assembly and coating ofbodywork components such as pan-els, doors and hoods, both for lineassembly and after-market service.

Polynorm supplies a wide range ofspare parts to the automotive industry.The company has an impressive pro-duction line with 92 robots and iscontinuously increasing this number.With RobotStudio they can switch to anew product faster because they pre-pare the programs in advance and testthem offline. This makes them muchmore flexible.

“Previously, we had to build oneunique robot cell for every new carmodel to be able to meet our cus-tomers’ requirements. That was ex-pensive and inflexible. Every time wechanged models or parts we had tobuild up an entire new cell”, explainsMario Smink , Manager of theEquipment and Infrastructure DesignDepartment.

3

“We wanted to move forward to stayahead of the competition. With offlineprogramming we saw an opportunityto reduce production costs”.

Before the investment, Polynorm eval-uated robotics products from aroundthe globe. For offline programming,three systems were tested: RobotStu-dio, Igrip and Robcad. The result ofthe study showed that RobotStudiowas the best offline-programming toolfor Polynorm.

“One of the reasons for pickingRobotStudio is that it’s designed forrobot programmers and not for CADdesigners. Another important featureis that the verification is incorporatedin RobotStudio, and that is very user-friendly. RobotStudio is a praisewor-thy product that can be installed on astandard computer”, establishes MarioSmink.

Polynorm is a cost-minded companyand bases all its investments on pay-back time calculations. In the case ofRobotStudio, payback was less thansix months.

“Productivity has risen enormouslysince we started to program offline.We have reduced the commissioningtime for new products by 90%. Thisrepresents a huge improvement inproductivity and the utilization ofassembly cells. The investment inRobotStudio was really worth themoney”, concludes Mario Smink.

Anders Nilsson of VCE (Sweden) manufac-tures construction equipment: The invest-ment in software was recovered after thefirst project.

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cations at Foxconn Network SystemGroup.

Foxconn started using ABB robots in2000. Today there are about 110 ABBrobots at the Shenzhen plant. Initiallyall robots had to be programmed on-line, requiring a lot of re-positioning.Foxconn recognized the productivitypotential of offline programming.

RobotStudio has changedworkflow and improvedproductivity. Productiontime has been cut down,especially when intro-ducing new products.

Since the introduction of RobotStudioFoxconn doesn’t have to process on-site debugging and programmingwhen introducing new products totheir production line. Now they simu-late and debug the productionprocess, optimize the programmingpath and reduce cycle time in Robot-Studio before starting production. Thishas changed workflow and improvedproductivity. Production time hasbeen cut down, especially when intro-ducing new products. “With RobotStu-dio, new products are introduced ontime. This is essential for survival inthis business”, says Yuan Xiao Yun,giving an example:

“One of our clients needed to mass-manufacture a product in a very shorttime. His requirements put us under a

lot of pressure. With RobotStudio wecould shorten our programming timeand thereby achieve our client’s pro-ductivity goals, enabling him to meethis market deadlines.”

Karin Dunberg

ABB Automation Technlogies AB

Mölndal, Sweden

[email protected]

References:

See “Virtual and real” on pp 62–64.

Foxconn – ChinaFoxconn, with its more than 80,000employees, is the biggest industry inChina. The Shenzhen plant in thesouth of China manufactures enclo-sures, primarily for desktop PCs andPC servers. The plant’s prestigiouscustomers include Dell, Apple, HP,Cisco, Symaco and Nokia.

“Our management strategy is time tomarket, time to volume and time tomoney. With RobotStudio, we canreduce evaluation time and shortendevelopment cycles. This helps usachieve our strategic goal and satisfyour customers”, explains Yuan XiaoYun , responsible for research andstudy of automated technology appli-

4

Yuan Xiao Yun of Foxconn (China) producesenclosures for desktop PCs and servers:Saving time is the key to survival in a busi-ness of tight schedules and tough deadlines.

4

Jeff Peterson of Crenlo (USA) makes rollover protection cabs: The robots could be programmed before the factory was completed.

2 Mario Smink of Polynorm (Holland) supplys bodywork components to the car industry: RobotStudio helped reduce commissioning time for new products by 90%.

3

Offline programming, online productivity

There is more to robot coordination than avoiding collisions. Operators wish formore precise synchronisation so that robots can team up to complete tasksthat are beyond the capability of a single robot. Two robots could, for example,lift an object that is too heavy or too bendy for a single unit. Or a group ofrobots could simultaneously work on an object while it is moving or rotating.

Such tasks require a very high degree of synchronisation. ABB’s new IRC5controller makes this possible, permitting robot groups to handle more complextasks than ever before.

Team-matesABB MultiMove functionality heralds

a new era in robot applicationsChristina Bredin

MultiRobot section

Special Report RoboticsABB Review

53


The MultiMove function, which is embedded into the IRC5 software, allows up to four robots and their work-positioners or other devices to work in full coordination.

1

Reference:1) www.abb.com/robotcontroller

The technology step taken by ABB inthe development of its fifth generationrobot controller, the modular IRC51), isone of the biggest since the launch ofits first generation S1 in 1974 and theIRB6 – the world’s first electric driverobot. Of the advances made with theIRC5, it is perhaps the introduction ofMultiMove that will have the biggestimpact in terms of applications andcustomer benefits.

MultiMove is a function embedded in-to the IRC5 software that allows up tofour robots and their work-positionersor other devices to work in full coor-dination. This advanced functionalityhas been made possible by the pro-cessing power and modularity of theIRC5 control module that is capable ofcalculating the paths of up to 36 servoaxes.

Such power, however, does not inflatecost as the modular concept of theIRC5 permits a lean solution. Irrespec-tive of whether the cell has single ormultiple robots, only one controlmodule is required. Expansion onlyrequires the addition of a drive mod-ule per robot up to a maximum offour. This approach significantly re-duces the requirement for communi-cation links compared to the morecommon multiple controller solution.

MultiMove is a functionembedded into the IRC5software that allows up tofour robots and theirwork-positioners or otherdevices to work in fullcoordination.

The principle of MultiMove is an ex-pansion of that used in coordinating arobot with a work-positioner, but thisolder technology can coordinate onlytwo robots or other devices. WithMultiMove, the work-handling device,which can be a robot or work-posi-tioner, controls the work object. Theother devices are coordinated to moverelative to the work object. This isachieved by defining the object coor-

dinate systems of each of the coordi-nating devices as relative to the work-object held in the handling device.When the work-object moves, theother devices move in symphony.

Even though MultiMove is a complexfunction to implement and requireslarge processing power (particularly inthe path planning and synchronisationof the drive motors of all robots), itsoperation has been kept simple. Feed-back from customers given early ex-posure to MultiMove has indicatedthat anyone familiar with program-ming an ABB robot, particularly whencoordinated with additional axes suchas a work-positioner, should have lit-tle difficulty in creating MultiMoveapplications.

A key to the easy implementation ofMultiMove is that each robot or addi-tional device in the cell has its ownprogram. This may be written andedited in ABB’s RAPID robot program-ming language. Each program may beviewed and executed totally or partlyindependently of other programs us-

ing either the Windows style FlexPen-dant graphical teaching unit, whichhas been developed as an integralpart of the IRC5 controller, or a PC.This concept of program separation in the MultiMove function is unique to ABB.

MultiMove is totally flexible becauseof its ability to switch between coordi-nated and independent operation ofthe robots in the cell. For instance, allthe devices can operate totally inde-pendently of each other all the time;or they can be synchronised at certainpoints in their cycles (semi-coordinat-ed movement); or they may work incoordination with fully synchronisedsequences and movements. Further-more, the robots can operate ingroups with two or three coordinated,while the other robots in the cellwork independently.

In semi-coordinated operation, therobots in the cell work on the samestationary object. This requires sometime synchronisation in the sequenceof operations but not any coordinated

Team-mates

MultiRobot section


MultiRobot section

Team-mates

MultiRobot section

movements. For example, a positionermoves the work-object while the ro-bots wait, and the robots only workon the object while it is stationary.This semi-coordinated movement re-quires synchronisation only to “advise”the positioner when the workpieceshould be moved and when the ro-bots can work.

An example of this is two robotswelding the same workpiece in differ-ent areas and on two different sides.The positioner first moves the work-piece to present its upper side. Thenthe robots perform their welds whilethe positioner waits. Next, the posi-tioner rotates the work. Finally, therobots perform their welds on thelower side.

In fully coordinated movement, severalrobots operate on the same moving ob-ject . The positioner or robot holdingthe work and the robots operating onthat work, move in synchrony. There-fore, the coordinated robots must startand stop their movements at the sametime and must execute the same num-ber of move instructions.

An example of fully coordinatedmovement is a spot welding task inwhich the work is continually movedalong an arc by one robot while twospots are applied by a weld gun heldby another robot that is coordinated

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with the first robot. A single instruc-tion in the work handling robot’s pro-gram is sufficient to move it from thestart to the finish of its trajectoryalong the arc. However, because thewelding robot applies two spots indifferent spatial positions and, there-fore, requires two instructions in itsprogram, the handling robot must alsohave two instructions. Therefore, thearc movement must be accomplishedusing two move instructions, one to amidpoint and another to the end ofthe arc, which are executed synchro-nously with the two move instructionsin the welding robot program.

Shorter lead times, in-creased productivity andimproved quality are someof the generalised poten-tial benefits of multiplerobot operation with thenew IRC5 controller.

Another feature of MultiMove is theability to jog multiple robots using thejoystick on the FlexPendant . During“coordinated jogging”, the relative po-sitions of all the devices remain con-stant and are exactly the same as dur-ing the full speed execution. At anypoint, any of the devices can beswitched to an independent jog so

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that their relative position may be ad-justed and then switched back againfor the coordinated jogging to contin-ue. This is a powerful tool in fine-tun-ing MultiMove programs and is onlyoffered by ABB.

Recovery from a production stop dueto equipment or process failure is apotential problem due to the com-plexity of the choreography in Multi-Move operations. Not only has the ro-bot at “fault” to avoid work and tool-ing, but it must also coordinate withits “partners” during its retraction to asafe position as well as on returningto its last position. The problem iseased by the IRC5 controller becauseof its path recording functionality.This is activated for every robot in aMultiMove operation. Knowing thepath leading to the error point en-ables the faulty robot to retract in syn-chrony with the coordinated robots toa safe point that is identified in itsRAPID error recovery routine. Thesame path data will similarly be usedafter recovery to return all the coordi-nated robots to the program positionsat which the error occurred.

Some errors necessitate the re-execu-tion of a command (otherwise knownas a “retry”) rather than returning therobot to its last known position. Anexample of this is an arc failure dur-ing arc welding. In this case an arc

ABB’s Flexpendant (left) is part of the IRC5 package. It supports robot programmers (right) through its ergonomic design, customized menus and touch screen.

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Team-mates

MultiRobot section

The “brain” of a synchronised robot cell is the IRC5 controller.3

restrike makes more sense than a re-traction. Therefore, a “retry” will bespecified in the RAPID error recoveryroutine. In MultiMove all devices needto be coordinated during the retry.

To make it easier to recover fromsuch errors in arc welding, ABB hasdeveloped a new “asynchronouslyraised error” function in RAPID. Forinstance, in the above example it ismost likely that the arc failure willoccur along the programmed pathafter the instruction has been execut-ed but before the robot has complet-ed its movement to the end of thepath. In this case, it is necessary thatthe error recovery routine is executedat the point of the arc failure and notat the completion of the instruction.The asynchronously raised error func-tion allows this to occur in MultiMoveas well as in single robot routines.

Shorter lead times, increased produc-tivity and improved quality are justsome of the generalised potential ben-efits of multiple robot operation withthe new IRC5 controller . Even intotally independent robot operations,time and costs are reduced due to theefficient internal communications andminimal handshaking of the singlecontroller. When some degree of syn-chronisation is introduced, waitingtimes can be minimised leading to fur-ther reductions in cycle times.

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Better product quality is a high poten-tial benefit of MultiMove. This can beachieved, for example, with two ormore robots working together in orderto balance the load on the workpiece.An illustration of this is simultaneousarc welding to eliminate the risk ofdistortion due to uneven shrinkage oncooling. Another is the use of two ormore robots to handle delicate orflimsy workpieces that may flex orbend under their own weight.It is also possible to expand the “part-on” concept with MultiMove by coor-dinating a workpiece-handling robotwith one or more process robots,helping to simplify and reduce toolingand fixturing. This can also reducecycle time as the time to place theworkpiece in the fixture has beeneliminated and the process robotsmay be able to start their operationsas soon as the part is picked up.Moreover, the 6-axis robot has moredexterity in manipulating the work-piece as compared to a rigid fixture oreven a servo-controlled positioner.This could mean, for instance, that theprocess robots are able to access allareas of the work, allowing the opera-tion to be completed in one handlingwith no intermediate stops for reori-enting the work. This is called one-stop or one hit processing.

Another advantage of coordinating awork-handling robot with two or

more processing robots is the higherrelative speeds attainable, for in-stance, between the weld torch andthe workpiece, leading to possiblybetter quality welds and/or shortercycle times. A further benefit is in lift-ing heavy loads. It may be less costlyto employ two smaller robots to liftthe load rather than a larger one, orthe load may be heavier than thecapacity of the largest robot but not of two robots working together.

The unique functionality that Multi-Move brings to the whole ABB robotrange sets new standards in robottechnology and opens up a range ofapplications that were previously im-practical or uneconomic. Its develop-ment has been backed-up by theknowledge gained from the previousfour generations of ABB robot con-trollers and aided by the expertisegenerated from over 125,000 ABB ro-bots installed worldwide. MultiMovefurther strengthens ABB’s lead inadvanced robot systems.




Christina Bredin


Sweden

christina.bredin @se.abb.com


MultiRobot section

Welding doubleMultiArc – the perfect welding team Sofie Kallgren

There are many reasons for coordi-nating welding robots. Two robotsworking simultaneously on the sameworkpiece save time and space. Butbesides producing more for less, ro-bot coordination is also about quali-ty. For example if a seam is weldedfrom both sides simultaneously itwill cool more evenly leading to abetter join.

The obstacle has long been master-ing the precise coordination re-quired. This is even more an issuewhere besides the two welding ro-bots, a positioner must also be inte-grated in the coordination. ABB’snew IRC5 robot controller simplifiesall of this. The controller providesperfect coordination and is, at thesame time, no more difficult to pro-gram than a single robot. Suddenly,teamwork in robot welding is a gras-pable reality.

MultiRobot section

MultiArc is a new concept for arcwelding where more than one weld-ing robot can be coordinated with asingle positioner using ABB’s newIRC5 controller. The combination of a brilliant brain and diligent handsmakes MultiArc the perfect combina-tion for arc welding.

MultiArc was developed by arc weld-ing specialists in close co-operationwith experienced and demanding cus-tomers in the car industry.

The new robot controller, IRC5, canintegrate up to four robots. For mostindustrial arc welding applications,however, the optimal solution is acombination of two robots workingwith one positioner. Two weldingprocesses active simultaneously onthe same positioner lead to superioraccuracy, increased quality, shortercycle times and reduced floor space.

Advanced welding process know-howMultiArc was developed in close co-operation with experienced and de-manding customers in the automotiveindustry. Based on deep and advancedarc welding process know-how, Multi-Arc is a mirror in which operators andwelding engineers will recognize theirskills. They will also recognize theease of use, high up-time, versatilityand flexibility that are distinctive fea-tures of ABB robotics products.

MultiArc – a concept for different needsBig or small – but always fast! To meeta wide range of different customer re-quirements, MultiArc standard configu-

rations include two IRB 140, 1400 or2400 robots combined with one IRBPpositioner, type R, K, D or L.

These standard configurations coverthe majority of industrial arc weldingapplications but they do not excludethe possibility of non-standard combi-nations; solutions can be tailored to in-dividual customer needs. Different ro-bot types can be integrated, includingfor example, one for material handling.

The MultiArc features and benefitsOne controller co-coordinating twowelding processes means powerfulmotion control and the eliminationof synchronization times; this, to-gether with superior path accuracyand perfect repetition, leads toshorter cycle times.Two simultaneous welding process-es result in better and more evenheat distribution. This minimizesthe risk of deformation or cracking,thus safeguarding quality.Two welding processes on thesame positioner mean reduced floorspace, increased flexibility and low-er fixed production costs.Using two integrated weldingprocesses is about 70 % more effi-cient than a single robot solutionwhich means a substantial increasein production output.

ABB’s paramount principle for robotwelding is to get the best possibleweld at the lowest possible cost. De-signed on the basis of using the opti-mal combination of proven compo-nents to obtain an efficient and flexi-

ble product, the new MultiArc conceptis ideal for handling a wide range ofcomplex parts.

MultiArc – ABB sets a new standardMulti-robot solutions are becomingmore and more common. ABB hasmade these systems simpler to use.Programming is as easy as for a singlerobot system, so reducing program-ming time significantly. MultiArc weld-ing cells are built from ABB standardcomponents, ensuring reliability and along life. ABB MultiArc increases pro-ductivity but not complexity!

MultiArc – a new concept for arc welding

Integrates more than one robot withone positioner using the new ABBcontroller IRC5.Developed in close co-operationwith experienced customers in theautomotive industry.Standard configurations for themajority of industrial arc weldingapplications.Superior accuracy, increased quali-ty, faster cycle times, reduced needof floor space.Simple use, high up-time, versatili-ty, flexibility

MultiArc is the perfect tool for arcwelding.


Sofie Kallgren


Laxå, Sweden

[email protected]


MultiRobot section

Welding double

Multiple robots, single solutionThe Gordian knot of programming multiple robotsJonas Anselmby

Robots have a well-established place in manufacturing. They are flexible,precise, cost-effective and will endlessly repeat complex task sequenceswith unwavering accuracy. But there are still many jobs that are too com-plex for a single robot. Just as an artisan may sometimes wish he had athird hand, so robot programmers desire extra robots for more flexible positioning or to work in tandem.

Putting additional robots into a cell does not solve all problems. If theseare to move simultaneously, care must be taken to make sure movementsare coordinated and paths do not collide. If one robot is difficult enough toprogram, then programming and coordinating several must be even moredaunting. But not when using ABB’s RobotStudio and the MultiMovePowerPac!


MultiRobot section

Within factory automation and espe-cially arc welding, there is a cleartrend towards systems with two ormore robots connected to a singlecontroller. This development is notprimarily driven by robot productcosts but by performance, quality andtime-cycle issues.

The market expects robot systemmanufacturers to offer multiple robotsolutions. This is especially importantin the automotive sub-supplier sectorwhere such advantages can define theability to remain competitive. Themain application process is arc weld-ing, especially in exhaust pipe, axleand seat production. Multi-robot sys-tems offer advantages in terms ofproduct quality, production rate andtotal system cost.

Why should multiple robot systems beespecially suitable for arc welding?The following typical multi-robotwelding applications require preciserobot coordination:

Two robots weld in coordinationwith respect to a moving workpiecepositioner . This setup is calledTwin Robots and is used wherewelding must be performed fromboth sides simultaneously to avoidmaterial distortion.

1

Multiple robots, single solution

The first VirtualRobot technology gen-eration was implemented in productssuch as QuickTeach, ProgramMaker,and RobotStudio for S4. It was basedon the fourth generation of ABB robotcontrollers, S4, S4C, S4C+.

Now, ten years later, ABB has re-leased the second-generation Virtual-Robot technology. This new genera-tion is faster, handles multiple robots,and offers far more capabilities thanksto the strengths of the IRC5 controller.PowerPac


MultiRobot section

Two or more robots can work withone workpiece simultaneously andso reduce the equipment necessaryfor transporting material betweencells. This not only cuts cycle time,but also reduces the cost of thecomplete system .

IRC5IRC5 is ABB’s fifth generation robotcontroller. It is a product of ABB’strendsetting motion technology anduses an expandable modular concept.The IRC5 can synchronize up to four robots through the MultiMove™function. It has a completely novelportable and ergonomic interface unit,the FlexPendant (see textbox).

MultiMove™MultiMove, allows several robots to becoordinated with just one controller.These robots can operate independ-ently or in coordination. This abilitycuts cycle time and costs while im-proving quality and productivity.MultiMove’s precise coordinationmakes manipulations possible thatwere previously considered impossi-ble for robots.

RobotStudio™ABB’s simulation and offline program-ming software, RobotStudio, allowsrobot programs to be created in theoffice without production having tobe shut down. Programs can be pre-pared in advance, increasing overallproductivity.

2nd generation VirtualRobot™technologyABB’s state-of-the-art VirtualRobot™lets users run the actual controllercode on their PC. This technology hasdriven competitors to follow ABB’slead.

The main paradigm of VirtualRobottechnology is: If it works on the Virtu-alRobot on the PC, it will also workon the factory floor. The VirtualRobotcan be used as a training, pre-salesand prototyping tool. It is ideal forconcept studies, application develop-ment, test, and full simulations inRobotStudio. VirtualRobot is also acornerstone in the strategy to providecustomers with the highest valueproducts for programming and inte-grating ABB robots.

3

Robots welding in tandem in the Twin Robot configuration. Thermal effects mayrequire both welds to be made simultane-ously. Perfect synchronization is a must.

1

A smooth and perfect weld seam is obtained by the positioning and welding robot working hand in hand in the FlexPositioner setup.

2

When two robots can work on the sameworkpiece simultaneously, the need for anadditional transport mechanism is saved.

3

The FlexPendant is a hand-held ro-bot-user interface for use with theIRC5 controller. It is used for man-ually controlling or programming arobot, or for making modificationsor changing settings during opera-tion. The FlexPendant can jog a ro-bot through its program, or jog anyof its axes to drive the robot to adesired position, and save and re-call learnt positions and actions.

The ergonomically designed unitweighs less than 1.3 kg. It has alarge color touch-screen, eightkeys, a joystick and an emergencystop button.

The user-friendly interface is basedon Microsoft’s CE.NET system. Itcan display information in 12 lan-guages of which three can bemade active simultaneously, mean-ing languages can be changed dur-ing operation which is useful whenstaff from different countries workin the same factory. The displaycan be flipped by 180 degrees tomake the FlexPendant suitable forleft or right-handed operators. Theoptions can be customized to suitthe robot application.

FlexPendant

The workpiece is manipulated sothat the welding bead is continu-ously oriented horizontally. Onerobot must position the work piecewhile a second robot handles theprocess equipment . This setup is called FlexPositioner.

Multi-robot systems enable better pro-duction rates and lower total systemcost:

2


Multiple robots, single solution

MultiRobot section

Jonas Anselmby

ABB Automation Technologies

Mölndal, Sweden

[email protected]

PowerPacs are plug-ins for RobotStu-dio supporting specific applicationssuch as welding, painting and cutting.These modules dramatically reducepreparation and setup time becausethis can be performed offline withoutdisturbing production.

MultiMove PowerPacMultiMove PowerPac is the newRobotStudio plug-in that cuts theGordian knot of programming multi-ple robots. ABB is the first and onlysupplier to offer an offline planning,programming and simulation tool fora MultiMove system.

RobotStudio and the MultiMovePowerPac make multi-robot systemseasy to plan, easy to program andeasy to use . One of the principlebenefits is simplified programming byfocussing on technical productionconstraints only.

A common application of RobotStudiowith MultiMove PowerPac is in defin-ing a virtual robot cell . A path iscreated along the geometry of a part.This path can, for example, be associ-ated with the geometry of the work-piece to be arc welded. The processparameters can then be defined asconstraints to be considered in thecontrol of the robots in the cell. Pre-determined constraints can include,among others, tool orientation, cycletime and robot orientation. Optimiza-tion can be based on quality criteriasuch as: use of maximum speedthrough reducing the load on thelimiting axis, minimizing cycle times,

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4

reducing mechanical stress on thecomplete system or individual axes.

After constraints have been defined,MultiMove PowerPac automaticallygenerates the robot paths.

ABB is the first and onlysupplier to offer an offlineplanning, programmingand simulation tool for aMultiMove system.

In the following, the example of atwo-robot arc-welding cell is consid-ered. The process of automaticallygenerating robot paths defines whichtasks each of the two robots shouldexecute, and defines the relationshipbetween the two independently con-trollable robots. One of the robots canhold an object in a desired orientationwhile the second robot performs thearc weld along the specified path.

When paths have been decided, therobots’ motion is automatically gener-ated. Their interaction can then beverified in a simulation and subse-quently downloaded to the controllerof the real robots.

Thanks to MultiMove PowerPac, userscan evaluate different cell layouts andproduction concepts in a very shorttime. MultiMove PowerPac makes aMultiMove system as easy to programand as flexible to modify as a singlerobot system.

With MultiMove PowerPac, ABB offersthe best MultiMove offline-program-ming tool in the industry. There is, atpresent, no other working solution onthe market.

RobotStudio™, VirtualRobot™, MultiMove™,

PowerPac™, IRC5™, FlexPositioner™ are trade-

marks of ABB.

The MultiMove PowerPac of RobotStudio simplifies programming, testing and visualization ofmultiple robot situations.

5

Programming with MultiMove offers greattime savings.

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30

25

20

15

10

5

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pro

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rob

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MultiMovePowerPac

FlexPendant Competitoraverage

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Virtual and real RobotStudio puts you in control of your robots – now both offline and onlineBertil Thorvaldsson

How do you teach a robot? Until re-cently, programmers had a robot attheir disposal and took it throughthe cycle of instruction, test and cor-rection until everything worked asdesired. Under today’s drive forhigher productivity and competitive-ness however, this method has onegreat drawback: The costly robotand all associated equipment haveto be removed from the productionprocess during programming.

ABB’s RobotStudio offers an alter-native. Instead of using a real robot,the programmer uses a virtual one.The robot is replaced by a desktopPC running the RobotStudio soft-ware. The software models the robotand all associated tooling and work-pieces – the programmer can set upand test programs from the comfortof his office. But this is more than amere simulation tool. The programthat runs on the virtual robot can be

downloaded to the real robot andthis will behave exactly as its virtualcounterpart.


Product and tools


Product and tools

At last programmers can test variantsand perfection their programs withouthaving to worry about the line manag-er getting on their heels because ofthe downtime they are causing. Theycan be confident that the robot isdoing exactly what they think it isdoing. Production planners don’t haveto spend sleepless nights over theproductivity lost while programmerstake possession of their robots.

Teach-pendantIndustrial robots have been aroundsince the early 1970s. ABB deliveredits first robot to a customer in 1974.This robot had to be programmedusing a hand-held device called ateach-pendant. The robot was driventhrough the desired motion sequenceusing this pendant, and the robot-con-troller stored the sequence as a pro-gram that could be executed as oftenas required.

In the 1970s, when theuse of a robot in itselfcreated a competitiveadvantage, programminginefficiency could be toler-ated. Today however, witheverybody using robots in production, it is thecompanies that use themmost efficiently that willprevail in the highly com-petitive market.

Technology may have made great ad-vances in the 30 years that have sincepassed, and new and more efficientmethods have been created for accom-plishing many tasks, but surprisinglythe 1970s procedure for programmingrobots is still widespread. Teach-pen-dants have, of course, evolved. Where-as the first unit was made of cast iron,had a very small alphanumeric display,and a large number of buttons, thenew hand-held operator unit for theIRC5 is an ergonomic lightweight plas-tic unit with a large color touch-screen,a joystick, and very few buttons. Butthe basic principle of shop-floor pro-gramming remains unchanged and stillhas the same disadvantage; program-

ming takes place at the expense ofproduction.

Programming versus productionBy using the robot, and worse still, allassociated manufacturing equipmentas a programming environment; thecost of programming includes the costof the productivity that could havebeen derived had the equipment beenproducing. In the 1970s, when the useof a robot in itself created a competi-tive advantage, this inefficiency couldoften be tolerated. Today however,with everybody using robots in pro-duction, it is the companies that usethem most efficiently that will prevailin the highly competitive market. Thisis driving a paradigm shift in the in-dustry that, over a period of time, willrevolutionize the way robots are pro-grammed. This development is com-parable to CAD software making draft-ing-board based mechanical designobsolete. The spread of offline pro-

gramming tools for robots will con-sign “teach-pendant” programming to the history books. ABB is leadingthis development with a softwareproduct called RobotStudio.

RobotStudio is based on the innova-tive concept, VirtualRobotTM technolo-gy. This was pioneered by ABB someten years ago and has now been per-fected into a second generation inconjunction with the development ofthe IRC5 robot controller. Using Virtu-alRobot technology means that theentire software that runs on the robotcontroller and on the operator unithas been converted to run on a regu-lar Windows PC . Thus, unlike soft-ware products for robot simulationthat have been around for a long timewithout making much impact on mod-ernizing robot programming, Robot-Studio is true virtual reality. In Robot-Studio real robot programs run on realrobot controllers. The only part that is

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Online programming is becoming cost-prohibitive as competition intensifies. This picture shows the programming of the first ABB robot.

1

Virtual and real

simulated is the mechanical unitwhere the steel has been replacedwith a 3D model of it. Thus, what yousee in RobotStudio is what you willsee on the shop floor.

RobotStudio – lower costs and higherqualityRobotStudio can be used to reducecost and increase productivity in everystep of the life cycle of a robot system

. In concept studies, it can improvethe quality of the system: Proposedsolutions are visualized to ensure thatall people involved are talking aboutthe same thing. When designing tool-

3

ing and fixtures, RobotStudio can re-duce the risk of unexpected costs anddelays by verifying designs beforethey are manufactured. And, above all,by programming the system while thereal robots are still hard at work onthe previous job, production can startearlier and time-to-market is reduced.Product quality will also increase asrobot positions are taken directly fromthe CAD-model of the part, without in-fluence of the online programmersvarying skill with the joystick. Oncethe system is producing, it is possibleto fine-tune it without sacrificing pro-duction time. Finally, as new variants

of the part are introduced, reprogram-ming is possible while the system con-tinues to produce.

With the second generation of Virtual-Robot technology, differences be-tween real and virtual robots havebeen eliminated to the extent that Ro-botStudio can run with real robots.RobotStudio can connect to real ro-bots on the shop floor using a net-work connection and can modify pro-grams and parameters in these robots.This is particularly useful when settingup new robot systems. Previously,technicians on the shop floor had tomake do with hand-held operatorunits to define or modify parametersin robot controllers. The lack of akeyboard and a high-resolution dis-play made this tedious and time-con-suming. Now, they can simply con-nect a portable PC to the robot anduse RobotStudio to make adjustmentsquickly and easily . The leap in effi-ciency is so great that ABB includes asmall subset of RobotStudio withevery robot shipped so that no cus-tomer has to settle for the configura-tion methods of the past.

4


Virtual and real

Product and tools

Bertil Thorvaldsson


Mölndal, Sweden

[email protected]

References:

IndustrialIT for robotic applications, Off-line program-

ming is just like having the robot on your PC! Ulrika

Sallsten, ABB Review 3/2001 pp28–30.

RobotStudio puts high productivity at the fingertips of all users of ABB robots.

3 With RobotStudio, editing of configuration parameters is swift and simple.

4

With VirtualRobot technology, a robot can be put onto every robot user’s desktop.

2


Product and tools

Traced to the sourceWebWare takes the headache out of catching errors in discrete manufacturingAnders Ekblad

Many production lines will sporadi-cally churn out suboptimal parts.Some such defective parts are de-tected before they leave the factory.Others are returned by the customer,or worse still, fail in use causingconsiderable costs and damage.Reducing the count of such badparts represents a considerablepotential for improving quality andcutting costs in practically anybranch of manufacturing.

If only the manufacturer could re-construct exactly what it was thatwent wrong when the faulty partwas made. Was there an incorrectwelding setting? Did somebodymake the wrong adjustment to therobot?

Unfortunately, such details are oftenrecorded only in the heads of pro-duction personnel and forgottenbefore they can be analyzed.

WebWare from ABB changes all ofthis. Even the most minute of changesis recorded. The exact conditions un-der which every individual part wasmanufactured can be reconstructedlong after that part left the factory. Ifa problem occurs, all parts that mayhave the same problem can quicklybe tracked and the parts recalled. Thiscuts down on uncertainty and on thecosts and disturbance of unnecessarilyrecalling good parts. Imagine the dis-ruption, for example, if a drinks com-pany must recall all bottles filled dur-ing a certain period because it cannottrace the problem more precisely, orof a pharmaceutical company recall-ing all its pills because it doesn’tknow which ones are dangerous.Waste is no longer a question of badluck but can be managed. That’s oneheadache less for production person-nel and one bonus for quality!

The need for control of discretemanufacturing processesTo reach best in class in discrete man-ufacturing is half the battle, remainingat the top is the other half. The chal-lenges of shortening product life-cy-cles and constant price pressure aresome of the threats that must befaced; only companies that manufac-ture world-class products with world-class efficiency will win.

World-class manufacturing requiresworld-class control of the productionassets. ABB’s WebWare product givescustomers that control. Being in con-trol allows customers to make quickerand better business, technology andoperating decisions.

WebWare gives customers the oppor-tunity to look deep into their roboticsprocess and develop solutions toquestions such as:

How can I shorten cycle time by 25%?How can I increase quality andreduce the potential for costlyproduct recalls?

and makes it available in an action-able form.

WebWare has been carefully designedusing industry standard tools to offerboth a standard ‘out of the box’ solu-tion, as well as the ability to cus-tomize packages to meet individualrequirements and work with legacysystems. In this way, ABB protects theinvestments of its customers.

WebWare is built with a modularframework based on proven technolo-gies and ABB’s knowledge of processand robot technology. WebWare tech-nology is scalable, and can serve fromlarge companies with more than 1000robots down to small operations withless than ten robots.

To achieve this scalability, WebWareuses the concept of data collectors.Data collectors manage the communi-cation to and from a group of robotcontrollers (typically around 30). Eachdata collector feeds this informationto the WebWare Server where the in-formation is stored. An unlimitednumber of data collectors can be con-nected to the WebWare Server, en-

abling it to communicate with a verylarge number of robot controllers.

The information stored in the Web-Ware Server is accessible from anyclient with Internet Explorer throughASP .NET pages. Hence, the informa-tion is available anywhere and any-time, putting customers in control.

Add-in modules give customers theneeded functionality. When change isneeded, it’s simply a question ofadding a module.

The following modules are currentlyavailable for WebWare: BACKUP andREPORT.

BACKUP This module safeguards robot data byscheduling automatic backup and per-manent archiving of robot programs,configuration files, and other produc-tion files from the robot or any otherautomation device with an FTP inter-face.

BACKUP also includes a connection toMicrosoft Visual Source Safe, allowingusers to review program changes


Product and tools

How can I increase overall equip-ment effectiveness by 10%?How can I reduce downtime due tounplanned service needs by 30%?How can I eliminate downtimescaused by loss of data on the facto-ry floor?

Actionable Information Creates ControlIn today’s information society, it iseasy to gain access to enormousquantities of data. But data alone putsnobody in control. The key to suc-ceeding in today’s business environ-ment is “actionable information”: theright information at the right time forthe right people. This is the vision be-hind WebWare.

In a nutshell, WebWare transforms fac-tory floor data into actionable informa-tion and enables business excellence.

Being in control means knowing thestatus of production assets at any timeand foreseeing where problems mayarise.

WebWare – A flexible solutionWebWare is an IT based system thatcollects and records all necessary data

Typical WebWare setup permitting traceability.1

10 Robots 10 Robots 10 Robots 10 Robots

WebWare Server

Optional installed software• Microsoft Visual Source Safe• Microsoft SQL Server

Windows2000 Server

10 Robots

DataCollector DataCollector

Ethernet

SQL Server DB

Visual Source Safe DB

Switch/Hub Switch/Hub Switch/Hub Switch/Hub Switch/Hub

DataCollector

Windows2000 Prof

DataCollector DataCollector

WebWare Clientoffice computer

WebWare Clientoffice computer

Windows2000 Prof Windows2000 Prof Windows2000 Prof Windows2000 Prof

Traced to the source


Traced to the source

Product and tools

when investigating unin-tended variations in produc-tion quality or performance.Up-to-date file archives arekey to rapid recovery in theevent of equipment substi-tution, failure, or rebooting.

As a minimum, every cus-tomer needs this inexpen-sive “insurance” against un-foreseen data loss on thefactory floor.

REPORT The REPORT module offersextensive visual and person-alized information that isactionable and “appropri-ate” to the user. The con-cept of “appropriateness” isa key factor in making informationactionable. REPORT makes it easy foreveryone, from shop floor workers tobusiness managers, to monitor themetrics that matter most for their par-ticular needs and responsibilities.

REPORT puts key performance indica-tors at the user’s fingertips, makingproactive and predictive businessmanagement a reality. This allowspersonnel at all levels to keep track ofthe relevant metrics in real time.Everybody can now manage expecta-tions, monitor trends, and make intel-ligent decisions based on actionableinformation.

Several other add-in modules are cur-rently under development and will beannounced during 2005 and onwards.

TraceabilityBeing in control is not only aboutcontrol of production equipment, butalso having control over the quality ofparts produced. Many customers askthemselves:

How can production quality beoptimized?How can zero-error-delivery beachieved?How can errors be prevented?

Since the ABB robot is involved inmany of the processes, such as arcwelding, the robot controller is impor-tant in obtaining quality data from thewelding process. This opens the pos-sibility of monitoring and tracing the

result as parts are refined. A typicaltraceability solution includes the com-ponents shown in .

The robot controller is pivotal. It gath-ers information from the arc-weldingprocess, collects the ID of the part pro-duced and actions taken by the opera-tor. For each robot controller, all thisinformation is constantly fed to theWebWare server database . Once inthe WebWare database, quality informa-tion for every part produced is madeavailable either as reports in the Web-Ware client, or alternatively forwardedto business systems such as SAP.

As a result, the company gets a “birthcertificate” for each part. This certifi-cate can be tailored to include relevantand appropriate information such as:

Serial number of the part.Which operator was responsibleand whether any changes weremade to program or process param-eters.Result from every welding operationperformed on the part and anyprocess errors that occurred. If ap-propriate these include deviationsfrom nominal voltage, current andstick-out, and the exact position onthe seam where these occurred.Such data is valuable for debugging.

Being able to track the exact condi-tions under which every individualpart was manufactured simplifies therecalling of faulty parts. If a problem-atic production setting is discovered, a

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quick search on the data-base will pinpoint all partsafflicted by this problem.These are then recalled. A blanket recall of all partsand the associated costs anddisruptions are avoided.

What Can WebWare do forthe customer today?WebWare is easy to installand operate. A typical instal-lation takes less than aweek. Once installed, Web-Ware helps customers gaincontrol of their productionand provides them with ac-tionable information. Thisinformation helps them an-swer important questionssuch as:

How can the production line becontinuously optimized againstdowntime and/or bottlenecks? How can data in robots best besafeguarded and how fast can onerobot or the whole line be restored?This option is especially significantin view of the real costs of down-time.Production data is often capturedand stored in a database. Can it bequickly accessed for critical deci-sions, or is the data trapped in in-formation islands where the formatis hard to read or even inaccessible?How can the quality of parts pro-duced be traced and proven to cus-tomers?

For anybody involved in discrete man-ufacturing, having the answers to anyof these questions will surely take theheadache out of operations.

WebWare is part of the overall Indus-trial IT strategy from ABB. Today morethan 1000 companies benefit from thestrengths of their Industrial IT solu-tions. WebWare has been carefully de-signed to meet the needs of robotizeddiscrete manufacturing solutions.

Anders Ekblad


Sweden

[email protected]

Reporting structure.2

WebWare Server

WebWare Client

Data

Report

Arc-Welding Process Information

Easy-Report

Backups

Easy-Report

Backups

Easy-Report

Backups

Part ID Number

Teachpendantfor operator

DB

Painting the future of robotics

Future technologies for interactive robot programmingJohn Pretlove, Charlotte Skourup, Thomas Pettersen

Robot programming has made hugestrides during the last 30 years. Theconcept of a robot programmerhacking cryptic commands into adumb terminal has long ago givenway to ergonomic tools such as theFlexpendant and RobotStudio. Now,another leap is coming. Program-mers will move away from their com-puter screens and enter a virtualworld with which they will interact inthree dimensions.

When teaching a robot to paint, they will use a virtual paint gun tospecify the robot path together withprocess related information whilegetting direct real-time visual feed-back of the simulated processthrough a head-worn display.

This new approach creates a tool for making robot programs in a fastand intuitive way, enabling a crafts-man on the shop floor to program an advanced and complex robotsystem without having to be a com-puter expert. This has the advan-tages of being easy to use andcheap, but most of all can capitaliseon the process expert’s knowledge.


Product and tools


Product and tools

Traditionally there are two methodsfor programming robots: Manual robotprogramming systems using the actualrobot and CAD-based systems for pro-gramming away from the robot.

Manual robot programming systemsguide the robot through a series ofwaypoints by hand or through interac-tion with a teach pendant wired to therobot. A teach pendant typically con-sists of a display, a keyboard and of-ten a joystick. In order to specify a ro-bot program, the operator works di-rectly with the robot using the teachpendant to move the end-effectoraround the object to record position,orientation and process-specific infor-mation.

Teach pendant solutions are cumber-some and time-consuming. Additional-ly, the programmer has no direct visu-al feedback of the result; he sees themanipulator and how it moves in rela-tion to the object, but has to remem-ber and mentally visualize where hehas recorded previous robot way-points. Secondly, using a joystick withthree degrees-of-freedom to steer amanipulator with at least six is incon-venient and not exactly intuitive.Thirdly, the task of specifying pathand process related information oftentakes at least two separate iterations,making it difficult for the process ex-pert to utilize his knowledge in an ef-fective manner.

CAD-based programming, on theother hand, is traditionally performedon a computer workstation where 3DCAD models replace the real robotand the object. The robot programcan be simulated and edited beforebeing downloaded to the robot.

These systems tend to be expensiveand are often complex with a largenumber of functions that require along training period before they can beused efficiently and effectively. Neitheris it trivial for the operator to interactwith a complete virtual 3D environ-ment using standard workstation I/Odevices. In addition, a full 3D model ofthe object, the work cell and the robotis required. Perhaps the biggest draw-back, however, is that programming ismoved away from the hands of thecraftsman on the shop floor.

Both of these traditional methodshave advantages and disadvantages,but both are, in general, time-consum-ing, error prone and often requireseveral iterations before the programis acceptable. Generating a new robotprogram is an extremely complex anddemanding process, often requiringthe participation of more than oneperson. Depending on the quality re-quirements, complexity of the object,complexity of the process, cycle time,skill level and experience of the robotprogrammer, it may take from underan hour to several weeks to make arobot program.

By utilizing this wearableprogramming system theoperator can freely movearound the object andvisualize the simulatedresult of the paint processbefore the actual paintingis performed by the robot.

This article presents a new approachthat delivers an easy to use AR (aug-mented reality) -based robot program-ming tool taking advantage of the op-erator’s implicit process & domainknowledge and generating high quali-ty programs in one single iteration. Itcombines the advantages of bothCAD-based programming (simulationand visualization of the final result)and manual robot programming (di-rect specification of the process onthe real object).

artVIS – augmented reality for taskvisualisationThis new robot programming systemprovides real-time visual feedback forthe robot programmer. The systemutilises augmented reality, a techniquethat overlays computer-generated (vir-tual) information with the real worldscene, presenting this to the program-mer on a head-worn display [1]. Theprogrammer looks at the real objectand sees dynamically updated graph-ics as if they were physically attachedto the object. For example in paintapplications, the virtual informationrepresents the path of the tool in rela-

tion to the object during execution. Inaddition the width and colour of thepaint-strokes, the orientation of thepaint-gun along the path and otherprocess properties are presented .The system allows for real-time simu-lation of the tool along the pro-grammed path by “playing” the ac-tions of the tool along the robot path.By utilizing this wearable program-ming system the operator can freelymove around the object and visualizethe simulated result of the paintprocess before the actual painting isperformed by the robot. This ad-vanced visualization enables the oper-ator to focus on the process ratherthan having to generate his own men-tal model of the program.

The composite augmented realityview is most conveniently displayed

1


The composite Augmented Reality view asseen by the operator. This figure shows acar wing with six unique markers attachedto it for location purposes. The yellow strip isvirtual paint that has been applied by the op-erator and is overlaid in the operators view.

1

The operator specifies target points using ahand-held device directly in relation to theobject to be painted. The simulated result isdisplayed as a composite image on headworn displays .1

2

on a head-worn display with an inte-grated camera .

In addition to capturing the real worldscene, the camera system also com-prises a vision-based tracking systemthat enables correct registration of thesimulated process result. The trackingis made possible by attaching auto-matically configurable visual markersto the object.

Programming and editing is donethrough a wireless pointing devicemimicking the real process paint gun.The device is tracked with six degreesof freedom enabling the specificationsof path waypoints and process related

2

information directly in relation to theobject. The pointing device has anumber of interaction buttons throughwhich the operator can easily specifyor change program properties; the op-erator simply pushes a button to spec-ify or delete a waypoint.

Programming and editingis done through a wirelesspointing device mimickingthe real process paintgun.

Editing of the manipulator path is sim-ply done by dragging a waypoint to a



Product and tools

new position. The virtual graphics arecontinuously updated in such a waythat the changes made to the programare visualized instantly. For exampleby changing the width of a paint-stroke, the process quality related topaint coverage can be inspected.

After the robot program has beenspecified, robot instructions are gener-ated automatically and downloaded tothe robot controller for execution.

Prototype testingInitial benchmarking tests showed thatrobot programming using this novelrobot programming prototype systemachieved the goal of being at least


twice as fast as conventional pro-gramming methods.

Today’s prototype makes up a com-plete system with full functionality forgenerating a new robot program in-cluding set-up and configuration, cre-ating the robot program, real-timereachability check, editing and gener-ation of robot programming code. The prototype system fulfils all therequirements regarding set-up andconfiguration (less than 1 day) andtraining of (new) users in less than 3 days. The prototype system also ful-fils the requirement of accuracy (x, yand z deviation below 5 mm).

The possibilities demon-strated here are only thebeginning of the possibili-ties offered by AR. Be-sides simplifying robotprogramming, the tech-nology will revolutionizeother applications – notjust within robot program-ming, but also for otherapplications such as serv-ice and maintenance

By utilizing the benefits from bothCAD-based and manual robot pro-gramming methods, process expertsare able to generate high quality robotprograms in an efficient manner with-out extensive training. The newmethod is therefore attractive acrossthe market segments but particularlyfor smaller sized process or produc-tion enterprises which have previous-ly not seen industrial robots as cost-effective tools because of the difficul-ties of using and programming them.

Feedback from operators indicates thatthis combination of virtual paint appliedto a real object is very effective andconvincing- and the operator quicklyforgets that the paint is only virtual.

An exciting futureThe possibilities demonstrated hereare only the beginning of the possibil-ities offered by AR. Besides simplify-ing robot programming, the technolo-

Product and tools

John Pretlove

Charlotte Skourup

Thomas Pettersen

ABB AS

Norway

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

References:

[1] Pretlove J., Skourup C., Pettersen T.

Industrial IT meets The Matrix. ABB Review 2/2004

gy will revolutionize other applica-tions - not just within robot program-ming, but also for other applicationssuch as service and maintenance. ARrepresents a paradigm shift for ‘Ease-of-use’ of technical systems. CorporateResearch Center, Norway, has intro-duced a totally new but very powerfultechnology.

ABB Review Special Report

Robotics

March 2005

Editorial board

Markus BayeganGroup R&D and Technology

Niklas Stake ABB Automation Technologies

Staffan ErenmalmABB Automation Technologies Management Ltd.

Nils Leffler Chief Editor, ABB Review

Publisher and copyright © 2005

ABB LtdZurich/Switzerland

Publisher’s office

ABB Schweiz AGCorporate ResearchABB Review / RD.REVCH-5405 Baden-Dä[email protected]

Printers

Vorarlberger Verlagsanstalt AGAT-6850 Dornbirn/Austria

Design

DAVILLA Werbeagentur GmbHAT-6900 Bregenz/Austria

Partial reprints or reproductions are per-mitted subject to full acknowledgement. Complete reprints require the publisher’swritten consent.

Disclaimer: The information contained herein reflects the views of the authors and is for informational purposes only. Readersshould not act upon the information con-tained herein without seeking professionaladvice. We make publications available withthe understanding that the authors are notrendering technical or other professionaladvice or opinions on specific facts or mat-ters and assume no liability whatsoever inconnection with their use. The companies of the ABB Group do not make any warrantyor guarantee, or promise, expressed or im-plied, concerning the content or accuracy of the views expressed herein.

ISSN: 1013-3119

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RobotStudio allows robot programming to be done on a PC inthe office without shutting down production. It also enables robotprograms to be prepared while a new system is built, allowingproduction to start carlier.

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