ABB has recently announced the IRB 6790 Foundry Prime robot, aimed at high-pressure water jet cleaning applications in harsh industrial environments. With this third-generation Foundry Prime robot, the company aims to increase reliability and system uptime, while reducing maintenance costs by 60 percent.
Per Vegard Nerseth, Managing Director of Robotics for ABB, said “ABB’s longstanding heritage of installing robot systems in automotive factories around the world helps us understand the challenges automakers face today, and how their factories might look tomorrow. This helps us make great robot solutions even better and continue to write the future for automation in the harshest operating environments.”
ABB appears to be interested in mass customization in the automotive industry. The company touted the flexibility for cleaning different part geometries with this robot with zero changeover time. This robot is designed for the automotive supply chain, including OEM and tier ones.
As the name suggests, the third-generation Foundry Prime robot is designed to work in an environment that is normally not ideal for industrial robots, with built-in protections from the heat, cleaning pressure, chemicals, and dirt typically found in harsh and wet environments. It also has IP69-rated protection to prevent water and dust ingress. ABB introduced the first-generation Foundry Prime robot in 2005, which was painted orange, the second generation in 2007, which was painted grey, while this third-generation model is offered unpainted yet fully coated. According to the company, the new robot uses 15 percent less energy than its predecessor.
The IRB 6790 is available in two variants – one with a 205 kg payload with 2.80 m reach, and one with a 235 kg payload and 2.65 m reach.
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