ST Robotics recently released a high-speed version of its five-axis vertically articulated R17 robot arm. The company has priced the robot at USD$18,640, which compared to the UR5’s average $35,000 price tag, is a shocker.
The ST R17HS robot arm uses brushless servo motors, has an effective reach of 750mm and a repeatability of 0.2mm. The robot has a maximum speed after acceleration of 480° per second in its waist, elbow, hand and wrist, with a shoulder speed of 300° per second.
ST Robotics president David Sands said this high-speed version is the result of years of development.
“Customers are finding it useful for high throughput production as well as testing applications requiring fast motion of test devices.”
Applications for the robot arm include testing, sample handling and machine feeding. The mean time between failures (MTBF) is 10,000 hours and typically over a million cycles, according to ST Robotics.
The R17HS robot arm $18K package includes the robot, a K11R controller, RoboForth II software, teach pad and a two-year warranty, with unlimited free technical support. Options include an expandable I/O and pneumatic, electric and vacuum grippers.
A simple design and manuals help simplify setup to a few hours.
An alternative high speed waist version of the five-axis R17 is priced at $16,690 for applications which do not require as much speed in a vertical direction, but have longer X-Y distances requiring long waist moves.
With offices in the United States, United Kingdom, Sri Lanka and Korea, ST Robotics’ robots are found in the manufacturing, nuclear, pharmaceutical, laboratory and semiconductor industries.
For more information about the ST Robotics and the ST R17HS robot arm, visit the ST Robotics website.
For more information about collaborative robots, continue reading with us about the History of Collaborative Robots.