Collaborative robots, or cobots, are not the exclusively pick-and-place solutions that they seem to be. Today, these smaller, lighter and portable robo-arms are no longer limited to cleanrooms and conveyor belts, as they are increasingly used in hazardous environments.
Aircraft Tooling, Inc. (ATI), an aviation component repair center, has been using the Universal Robots cobot model UR10 for three years. The largest in the UR series, the UR10 achieves a reach of up to 51.2 in, with a payload capacity of up to 10kg and a movement speed of up to 39.4 in/s.
ATI uses the UR10 for its High Velocity Oxygen Fuel (HVOF) thermal spray and plasma spray coating processes to improve and restore component surfaces. These processes are hazardous to humans and robots as they produce high temperatures and metal particle spray. Preventing these hazards from interfering with the robot and resulting in frequent maintenance was key to ATI’s decision in selecting the UR10, with help from Olympus Controls, a UR robot distributor.
The UR10 performed with such durability, the cobot only required a wipe down of dust in-between applications, said Juan Puente, thermal spray supervisor at ATI.
“I actually thought the robot wouldn’t stand it,” Puente added. “Some of these powder coatings are tungsten carbide which is a hard metal coating. If it seeps into the bearings of the robot, we were afraid it would destroy them. There were no particles in there, three years of operation, it doesn’t show.”
The UR10 is sealed against dust and rated for high temperatures to work in extreme environments and has required no preventative maintenance.
““Many think of cobots as being fragile but the opposite is true, this is an extremely durable robot; it’s sealed against dust, rated for high temperatures and works just as well in extreme environments as a robot in a clean room,” said Nick Armenta, automation engineer with Olympus Controls.
Unpacking and Programming the UR10 Collaborative Robot
The ATI team were able to get the UR10 fully functional within four hours of unpacking.
“It was a very simply, user-friendly process as opposed to other robots with a much more complex, multi-step programming interface,” Puente said. The UR10’s spray path was programmed using motion sensing technology in the arm. Users move the UR10 from position to position, saving waypoints on the “teach pendant” touchscreen to create a movement path.
“We used a red laser to indicate exactly where we wanted the robot to move, once the waypoints were set, we just hit “play” and the robot moved through that trajectory,” explained Puente. “We’re looking into adding a vision camera so we can have the robot perform quality inspection of coated parts, locating areas that needs an extra coating. There are so many things we can do with these robots, that we have only started to explore.”
Puente had made the choice to work with the UR10 versus traditional industrial robots as the latter were unable to meet ATI’s needs. “The cost was outrageous, the cast iron models we looked at were too bulky, we could not easily move them between cells, they were hard to program, and all required safety guarding, which would not work in our small spray cells.”
The UR10 is the largest of the three cobot models offered by Universal Robots in the UR series, which includes the UR3 and UR5. The cobots are named after their payload in kilograms. “We chose the UR10 because of its length, being able to hang it upside down, walk underneath it and keeping the floor clear of anything, was always an advantage to us,” said Puente.
ATI currently has two UR10 robots in operation with a third being installed.
For more information about the UR10 and UR series of collaborative robots, visit the Universal Robots website. Be sure to also visit the Aircraft Tooling, Inc. and Olympus Controls websites.