PBC Linear (Pacific Bearing Company) has announced that it will demonstrate deeper CNC integration for its Applied Cobotics Cobot Feeder at FABTECH 2023.
The Cobot Feeder, a CNC machine feeding application kit that delivers and stages parts to be placed into a machining process, received UR+ partner certification earlier this year. It includes a base storage-and-retrieval unit with a UR cobot pedestal, an enclosed steel rack dunnage tower with a 17-tray capacity that safely stores up to 50 pounds of material, an HMI touchscreen display for easy lift control, Ethernet IP, Modbus, and standard UR cobot communications. By reliably loading and unloading dunnage trays that a UR cobot can consistently access, this CNC machine-tending tool provides a standardized platform for storing, staging, and delivering parts into a position that the UR cobot can reach for loading and unloading.
The Cobot Feeder demonstration combines a UR10e with a Flexxbotics FlexxCNC to control the process of loading and unloading trays of PBC Linear FL-12 bearings into a pneumatic vise. The modular, flexible, and easily retaskable Cobot Feeder enables one machinist to do the work of up to eight while increasing the amount of raw materials available to cobot machines tending workcells.
“By increasing the amount of raw materials to a workcell, the Cobot Feeder’s 17-tray, high-density, part-storage solution enables a machining, welding, stamping, forming, or deburring centre to operate for longer periods of time without human interaction, significantly increasing productivity by up to 300 percent or more,” says Beau Wileman, Applied Cobotics and 3D Platform Product Manager, PBC Linear. “In many cases, this means a cobot workcell operating eight hours a day during normal business operations can continue to work through shifts two and three, providing lights-out operation around the clock. This considerably increases the cobot workcell’s productivity, while overcoming the ‘labour gap’ in machine tending manufacturing operations.”
The Cobot Feeder will be on display at the Universal Robots booth (B17063). FABTECH takes place in Chicago, IL, September 11-14.
