SMT, PCB Electronics Industry News

Robotics

Jun 01, 2021

Teach Pendant

Teach pendant programming provides an intuitive way to interact with industrial robots. It involves the usage of a hand-held control terminal called a teach pendant that is used to control the motion of a robot. It provides a very convenient method to teach trajectories to the robot. Teach pendant programming is easy to learn and doesn’t require any specific technical skills.

Using a teach pendant operator can teach specific points/locations and path sequences to the robot. Hence, teach pendants can be used as an effective tool for visualization for educational purposes. But one major problem is that these devices are generally proprietary work of a specific robot manufacturer.


Teach Pendant is available through Quick Time Engineering Inc.


Robotic Arms

Robotic arms are machines that are programmed to execute a specific task or job quickly, efficiently, and extremely accurately. Generally, motor-driven, they are most often used for the rapid, consistent performance of heavy and/or highly repetitive procedures over extended periods of time and are especially valued in the industrial production, manufacturing, machining and assembly sectors.

A typical industrial robot arm includes a series of joints, articulations and manipulators that work together to closely resemble the motion and functionality of a human arm (at least from a purely mechanical perspective). A programmable robotic arm can be a complete machine in and of itself, or it can function as an individual robot part of a larger and more complex piece of equipment.

A great many smaller robotic arms used in countless industries and workplace applications today are benchtop-mounted and controlled electronically. Larger versions might be floor-mounted, but either way, they tend to be constructed from sturdy and durable metal (often steel or cast iron), and most will feature between 4-6 articulating joints. Again, from a mechanical perspective, the key joints on a robotic arm are designed to closely resemble the main parts of its human equivalent - including the shoulder, elbow, forearm and wrist.

Such is the speed and power that industrial robot arms can work at, there’s a pressing need to be extremely safety-conscious when programming and using them. However, when deployed appropriately, they can vastly increase production rates and accuracy of placement and picking tasks, as well as performing heavy-duty lifting and repositioning functions that would be impossible even for groups of multiple human workers to carry out at any sort of pace.

As technology has advanced and the manufacturing costs of robotic components has fallen over the years, the past decade or so has seen a very rapid expansion in the availability and affordability of robots and robotic arms across a very wide range of industries. This means that they’re far more commonly encountered in smaller-scale operations than they once were because they’re no longer only an economically viable option for large-scale production lines outputting very high volumes of product.

There are numerous different robotic arm types available on today’s market, each designed with important core abilities and functions that make various specific types particularly well-suited for particular roles or industrial environments.

The majority of robotic arms have up to six joints connecting seven sections, most or all of which are driven by various forms of stepper motors and controlled by a computer. This allows for incredibly precise positioning of the ‘hand’ or ends effector part of the arm, which in most industrial uses will generally be some sort of specialised tool or attachment, designed to carry out a highly specific action or repeatable series of articulations.

For the most part, the key distinction between different sorts of robotic arms lies in the way their joints are designed to articulate - and subsequently the range of movement and functions they’re able to perform - as well as the type of framework they’re supported by and the footprint they require for installation and operation.

Cartesian robot arms - often referred to as rectilinear or gantry robot arms - are named after the Cartesian coordinate system, developed by René Descartes in the 17th century as a way to map geometric curves onto a graph through the use of algebraic equations.

If all that sounds frighteningly complex, the practical reality is actually quite familiar to most of us in the day-to-day workplace uses: Cartesian coordinates are essentially what give us the widely used system of X, Y and (less commonly) Z axes that we almost always see mapped on any typical graph.

In robotic arm terms, mechatronic Cartesian or gantry robots tend to consist of three articulating joints that are programmed using these X. Y and Z coordinates to specify linear movement in three dimensions along these three axes. The wrist joint often provides further rotational functionality.

Cartesian robotic arms use various motors and linear actuators to position a tool or attachment somewhere in three-dimensional space and manipulate it through a series of linear movements to switch between positions. They can be mounted horizontally, vertically or overhead, and are widely used in a range of applications such as machining parts or picking and placement alongside conveyor belts.

Cylindrical robot arms, in contrast to the Cartesian versions outlined above, are ones whose axes form a cylindrical coordinate system - in short, their programmed movements take place within a cylinder-shaped space (up, down and around). This type of arm is more commonly used for assembly operations, spot-welding and machine tool handling, where the rotary and prismatic joints give it both rotational and linear motion.

Again, just like the cylindrical robotic arms described above, a polar or spherical robot is one that operates within a spherical ‘work envelope’ or potential locus of movement. This is achieved through a combined rotational joint, two rotary joints, and a linear joint. The polar robotic arm is connected to its base via a twisting joint, and the subsequent spherical workspace it has access to make it useful for performing similar roles as cylindrical robotic arms - handling machine tools, spot welding, die casting and arc welding.

SCARA robot arms are most widely used in assembly and pick and place applications. The acronym SCARA stands for Selective Compliance Assembly Robot Arm (or sometimes Selective Compliance Articulated Robot Arm), which is a reference to their ability to tolerate a limited degree of ‘compliance’ - flexibility, in the context of robotics - along some axes while remaining rigid in others.


Robotic arms are available through Quick Time Engineering Inc.


Quick Time Engineering Inc is an international company with offices and distribution networks in the USA, Hong Kong, Europe and Malaysia.

In its 20 years of operation since 1998, Quick Time Engineering Inc had emerged from a local engineering company with a single staff that provided solutions in factory automation to become nowadays a company that serves the Oil & Gas industries, EPC contractors, System Integrators and other industrial automation and process control companies worldwide. Customers from over 50 countries worldwide trust us with their need for process control instruments and industrial automation products.

For more information about Quick Time Engineering Inc, visit www.quicktimeonline.com or email enquiry@quicktimeonline.com

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