What is machine tending
At its core, machine tending refers to loading and unloading a machine with parts or raw materials. Thus, in automated machine tending, robotic machine tending systems are used to tend a machine – typically a computer numerical control (CNC) machine.
How is robotic machine tending different from robotic material handling? A robotic machine tending system has to communicate with the CNC machine and often performs multiple functions in a single application. Thus, it requires much more complexity than robotic material handling.
Machine tending is essentially looking after, and serving, another machine that is performing a function. These machines are most typically involved in machining, forming, and shaping parts for use in a production assembly process. Some typical applications are shown below:
• CNC operations
• Grinding
• Milling and turning
• Injection molds
• Stamping, punching, trimming, and forging
• Compression molds
• Welding
Use of industrial robots and collaborative robots
Industrial robots and collaborative robots, or cobots, are used in machine tending. Machine tending is the oldest of applications for the industrial robot, and is even more economically beneficial today than it was in 1960 when the first robot was installed at a die casting machine. Industrial robots are used where much larger items and parts are being fed into another machine, typically, such situations include large forge press machines. In these situations, the working area must be caged off due to its danger to humans.
Recent years have seen an increasing deployment of cobots, with a human operator monitoring the operation of one or a number of machines. Cobots offer a great deal of flexibility as they can be programmed very simply, even by just moving the cobot arm to grasp and place points manually. These robots can take care of multiple extra functions such as closing CNC doors and pressing operation buttons on the CNC console. All in all, they are the perfect companion to a machine-tending cell offering a very high degree of flexibility.
Benefits of using high-quality 3D vision in machine tending
While industrial robots and cobots are used extensively for their inherent flexibility, there are limitations without high-quality 3D machine vision. They can only handle specific parts in a specific scenario. The parts they will load and unload must be presented in an ordered way in a precise position. Bins with randomly positioned parts will be a great challenge without a suitable 3D sensor.
A 3D sensor that is mounted on the robot arm immediately allows the robot to have awareness of its workspace. This means randomly positioned parts can be presented to the robot and pick and grasp operations can be made successfully using the 3D sensor. This also means complex arrangements of parts and multiple types of parts can be used in the process without reprogramming or rearrangement of the workspace area. This can bring great cost reductions and improvements in quality as the 3D imaging can see to a much high degree of accuracy than a human operator can.
What's more, a big advantage of 3D vision is its flexibility:
• It solves applications with overlapping parts which vary in shape and size
• You can teach the system to detect and handle a whole variety of objects
• You can achieve fast changeovers: when you're done with a part, just remove the empty bin and place a new bin with the next product.
Conclusion
In the increasingly globalized markets, competition in the production industry has never been more fierce. Factors such as product quality or production efficiency have become increasingly important by the day and therefore, manufacturing companies must leverage every advantage to remain competitive.
Mech-Mind vision systems and robotic intelligence software are highly flexible and universal systems, which makes them suitable for the automation of a wide range of industrial tasks, including machine tending.
To address these challenges, more and more businesses across all industries are taking advantage of automated machine tending. Robotic machine tending systems offer many benefits to manufacturers – chief among them are accurate repeatability, increased production capacity, and reduced risk of injuries. Moreover, these systems are surprisingly affordable, as the higher initial investment will gradually translate into significant cost savings.